Sultan Agung Islamic University (UNISSULA) attended the 2018 Asian University President Forum (AUPF) event at Petra Christian University, Surabaya on 6-8 November 2018. The representatives of UNISSULA were Drs. H. Bedjo Santoso, MT., Ph.D. (Vice Rector I), Dean of Faculty of Economics along with the team, Head of Civil Engineering Department, and Head of Office of International Affairs. On this event, cooperation with 9 universities in the Asian region was also obtained by UNISSULA.

The event entitled Disruption at the Crossroads: Innovative Engagement and Future Challenges for Higher Education was opened by the Rector of Petra CU, Representative of the AUPF Secretariat, and Head of LLDIKTI Region VII. It was also occupied with Plenary Session with Prof. Ainun Na’im (General Secretary of the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education) as the speaker and Speech Session by several Rectors from both domestic and overseas universities.

UNISSULA’s Vice Rector I proposed to all AUPF members in the Speech Session to consider alternative formulation indicators for the universities ranking joined the AUPF forum. He also added that the current ranking indicators mostly used by international survey institutions were not compatible to the real conditions at universities in Asia. The proposal was responded by Prof. Dr. Jekuk Chang, Rector of Dongseo University in South Korea, who is also a collaborative partner of UNISSULA. He stated that the good ideas could be followed up by contacting the existing ranking institutions so that the proposed indicators could be followed up.

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between universities taking part in the 2018 AUPF forum was the last agenda in the event. UNISSULA as a university with years of involvement in AUPF forum received 9 offers of cooperation from both domestic and foreign universities. These universities including STIE Perbanas Surabaya, Universitas Pembangunan Panca Budi Medan, Panpacific University Philippine, Western Colleges Philippine, Cabuyao Univerity Philippine, Mykolas Romeris University Lithuania, Cambodian University for Specialties, Chaoshan College China, dan Southern University Bangladesh.

After the signing of the MoU, UNISSULA’s Head of Office of International Affairs stated that the collaboration paper would soon be followed up in a collaboration program between UNISSULA and partners. She also added that the paradigm of cooperation must be changed from the mere signing of the MoU manuscript to real programs collaboration beneficial for all parties.