University of Al Azhar, founded in 2000, is a private higher education located in Jakarta. There are six colleges including law, science and technology, economics and business, cultural sciences, psychology and education, and social sciences politics. UAI attaches great importance to cooperating with world-renowned universities such as Cambridge University and Shizuoka University in international exchanges. In the past, UAI established a network and channels of multiple strategic partners with the concept of Triple Helix Collaboration (academic and research, business and government). In recent years, it has been committed to establishing partnerships with related institutions in Indonesia and abroad in order to make the society respond to the coming challenges and problems, which is also the potential of the school for academic research in the future.
The PI of TIUL project and Vice President of NTPU, Prof. Da-xin Chen; the co-PI of TIUL project and Dean of Sustainable Innovation Collegue, prof. Wan-ming Wey; the co-PI of TIUL project, prof. Ta-Kang Yeh; the Director of TIUL, Dr. Hsuan-Chang Shih; the assistant prof. of International Program on Urban Governance (IPUG), Dr. Chantalle Rietdijk and other members visited UAI in Indonesia on February 27th this year. Furthermore, Ir. Ade Jamal, the vice president of University of Al Azhar and the deans of each colleges showed around the TIUL Jakarta office on the second floor of University of Al Azhar to TIUL members. Also, we shared the academic and research achievements of the two universities in recent years in the conference.
By means of this visiting opportunity, the Director of TIUL, Dr. Hsuan-Chang Shih and Dr. Chantalle Rietdijk formally present the integrated research project to UAI teachers and students: The Impact of Climate Change and Natural Disasters on Social-Ecological System in Urban Areas: Phenomenal Observations, Coping Strategies and Policy Analysis, which includes 1 main project and 5 sub-projects. The team consists of researchers from NTPU International College, TIUL and four Indonesia’s universities such as UGM (Universitas Gadjah Mada), ITB (Institut Teknologi Bandung), UNNES (Universitas Negeri Semarang), UAI (Universitas Al Azhar Indonesia). The project aligns with NTPU’s internationalization goals and the New Southbound Policy to strengthen collaboration with Southeast-Asian nations. The topics of the 5 sub-projects are related the following areas: (1) coastal flood and subsidence model estimation; (2) real estate and urban development; (3) urban tourism development; (4) community resilience etc. Again, the abovementioned research areas also align with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) presented by the United Nations in the report, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - a Plan of action for people, planet, and prosperity. Therefore, it is expected to establish long-term research partnerships with these universities in Indonesian.
Prof. Da-xin Chen mentioned that it is a great honor to finally visit UAI after Covid-19. In order to promote the new southward policy proposed by our country, Indonesia's unique history, culture and geographical environment are taken into consideration. Due to factors such as location and transportation, TIUL actively looks for the opportunities for educational and academic cooperation with universities in Jakarta. It is a great honor to sign MOU with UAI and carry out educational and academic exchanges. Although the epidemic has changed many existing forms of cooperation, it has also brought new opportunities and possibilities. In the past two years, TIUL and UAI used online and remote methods to complete exchanges on teaching and students, and discuss research topics such as resource and environmental governance, urbanization and environmental change and disaster risk assessment. Therefore, NTPU and TIUL hope that the academic research and educational resources of the two universities can cooperate more closely, not only to share research results, but also to encourage students and teachers to exchange, to enhance the international competitiveness.
Prof. Wan-ming Wei also announced that NTPU hopes to promote the high education cooperation between the two countries in the future, and hopes to cooperate with UAI in educational programs. Including strengthening and expanding the educational cooperation between the two universities, whether it is research cooperation projects, or teacher-student teaching cooperation projects, in order to broaden the teaching horizons of the two universities and implement the sharing of educational resources.
Vice President of UAI, Ir. Ade Jamal also responded that the environmental change issues caused by land development in Indonesia are relatively extensive at present, involving multi-level and complex issues such as ecology and land, cities and humans, industries and energy, disaster risks and the rule of law. In the future, NTPU and UAI will cooperate on the research direction and goals proposed by the TIUL, and promise to do their best to support the resources needed by TIUL in research and technology. In the past few years, TIUL and UAI have established a good relationship with each other, and he believe this relationship will be more fruitful in the next few years.
Looking forward to the future, the higher education cooperation projects between the two universities will have long-term and international teaching experience and promote the cultivation and exchange of more talent.
Prof. Da-xin Chen, The PI of TIUL project and Vice President of NTPU