In order to realize academic potential up to international level, University of Brawijaya (UB) continuously to develop partnership either with overseas educational institution or government. The purpose of cooperation is not only to build UB’s reputation in international level, but also creating students who able to contribute in communities even until becoming other countries’ benchmarking. This lies behind the visit of the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Sheikh Mustafa bin Ibrahim Al-Mubarak to UB, Thursday (10/Mar/2016).
The event that located at the Banquet Hall of the sixth floor of Rectorate building attended by UB’s Rector Prof. Dr. Ir. Mohammad Bisri, MS along with UB’s principal board. The meeting is considered to have quite huge benefits since the Republic of Indonesia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have quite fairly closely diplomatic relations. “We know that Indonesia is a large muslim population country,” said Mustafa. In addition to hajj or umrah, sharia economic development in the country according to him is also quite rapid. Definitely attention in education matters like research, scholarships and student or lecturer exchange provide new foundation to strengthening partnership between both countries,” said Mustafa.
He pursued, that many potencies could be reached in educational matter between UB and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “Moreover educational condition in Malang City also very conducive, since some well-known universities in Malang also concern in Islamic sharia issues,” Mustafa added. In regard to scholarship, he said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia provides 250 scholarships annually for entirely programs (non-medicine program) and still would be improved each year. In addition to student and lecturer exchange, his entities also facilitate Arabic learning for institutions that require.
Although still in visitation stage, hopefully UB and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can collaborate in real os many aspects. Thus in the future development, many UB’s lecturers and students who chanced to learn, pursuing studies or research with Saudi Arabian universities. [indra/Humas UB/trans. Denok]
