The statement was made by Widodo in his opening address at the 2021 Indonesian Rector Forum, streamed from the Presidential Secretariat YouTube channel in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The COVID-19 pandemic, he said, had brought a series of disruptions that adds to earlier disruptions from the 4.0 industrial revolution, where cloud computing, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, advanced robotics, and virtual reality brought changes in numerous sectors.
Such technological advancements, he noted, have become major disruptions, shifting trade to e-commerce platforms, banking to financial technologies or fintechs and e-payments. Similar disruptions were also seen in the health, legal, and education sectors.
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For that reason, the President asked for higher education institutions to become 'edutech' institutions.
"The most basic (adaptation of) technology is one that utilizes digital advancements. Digital learning is not only used to facilitate teaching activities by internal lecturers to their students. It is also important to facilitate students to learn with anyone, anywhere, about anything," he said.
He also highlighted the importance of scheduling lectures from industry makers and practitioners.
"It is important to further expose students and lecturers to the future of the technology industry," he said, encouraging higher education institutions to involve and collaborate more with industry makers and practitioners.
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Translator: Rangga PAJ, Aria Cindyara
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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