Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education Mohamad Nasir stated that universities today cannot stand still, especially when entering the industrial revolution era 4.0 that offers many challenges and opportunities.
"Higher education in the future should not just involve building big buildings. Those buildings are expected to support the State University of Malang to become a learning innovation center," Nasir noted in his remarks at the groundbreaking of Project 4 in 1 at Malang State University on Monday.
UM is one of the universities that received funding from the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) for Project 4 in 1.
In the 4 in 1 Consortium, UM has a task of becoming a center of excellence for Learning Innovation Center, with funding amounting to US$48.2 million.
Three other universities included in the ISDB Project 4 in 1 are the University of Jember, Mulawarman University, and Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University.
Each of those universities has a Center of Excellence (CoE) with a specific theme that should be developed based on its strengths and potential.
University of Jember will carry out a CoE for Bio-Technology; Mulawarman University will build a CoE for Tropical Studies; while Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University will be a CoE for Food Security.
The 4.0 industrial revolution has brought major changes in various fields of life, including in the education sector.
The conventional learning system will be transformed towards digital learning, and therefore, higher educational institutions are expected to be able to carry out research and deal with the challenges in the era of 4.0.
According to Nasir, now is the era of disruptive innovation, in which an innovation is able to create new markets, disrupt or damage existing markets, and finally replace previous technology.
"Our higher education paradigm undergoes a very fundamental change in the presence of disruptive innovation and industrial revolution," Nasir remarked.
The State University of Malang is considered to have great potential in playing a role for Indonesia in facing Industrial Revolution 4.0 challenges.
The Learning Innovation Center is very strategic in advancing education that encourages research products that can be applied in education and society.
Reporting by Vicki Febrianto
Editing by Libertina WA, Sri Haryati
Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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