Timor-Leste’s Minister of Education, Science, and Culture Visits UMN

The visit of the Minister of Education, Science, and Culture of Timor-Leste to the UMN Campus (Doc. UMN)

Tangerang – UMN received a visit from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Timor-Leste (07/19). This visit is expected to result in an MoU of cooperation, and all parties can collaborate as soon as possible. In this meeting, opportunities for collaboration in the fields of education and community service were discussed.

To become a world-class university, UMN welcomed the Minister of Education, Science, and Culture of Timor Leste, Dr. José Honório da Costa Pereira Jerónimo, on Friday (19/07). The visit was accompanied by the Counselor of the Timor Leste Embassy in Indonesia, Mr. Domingos Savio V, and his delegation. 

UMN welcomed all the guests of honor and the delegation of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Culture attended by UMN, namely Ir. Teddy Surianto, Chairman of the Multimedia Nusantara Foundation; Dr. Ninok Leksono, M.A, UMN Rector; Dr. Friska Natalia, S.Kom, M.T, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs; Dr. Ir. Andrey Andoko, M.Sc., Vice-Rector for General Administration and Finance; Prof. Dr. Muliawati G. Siswanto, M.Eng.Sc., Vice-Rector for Relations and Cooperation; Dr. Winarno PM, Vice-Rector for LPPM; and deans from each department. 

From Multimedia Nusantara Polytechnic was Roy Anthonius Susanto, S.Sn., M.Ds., Director of Multimedia Nusantara Polytechnic, and Dessy Novita Lengkey, S.Psi, Psi., MM, Deputy Director of Multimedia Nusantara Polytechnic.

This visit was a diplomatic agenda from the Minister of Education, Science, and Culture of Timor-Leste to fulfill official invitations from several universities in Indonesia. On this occasion, UMN also invited the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Timor-Leste to visit UMN and be able to conduct a series of discussions as an initial step in a collaboration that is expected to be sustainable in the future. 

This visit aims to expand UMN’s international cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Timor-Leste. It is also hoped that this collaboration will continue to uphold the values of the Tri-Dharma, including Education, Community Service, and Research.

Teddy warmly welcomes the arrival of the Minister of Education, Science, and Culture of Timor-Leste. (Doc. UMN)

“I think this cooperation is important because in Indonesia itself there are two serious problems, namely poverty and ignorance, these two things can only be solved by education. I believe that a proper education can make people better and more educated,” Teddy said in the opening.

Teddy hopes this collaboration can provide opportunities for Timor-Leste students who want to study at UMN or Vocational MNP. According to Teddy, in addition to infrastructure and economy, education is also important to develop.

“We also provide other opportunities such as student exchange, lecturer exchange, joint-research. In addition, if there are business units that want to collaborate, for example, if Timor-Leste wants to build a campus based on ICT, UMN is very willing to share,” continued Teddy.

At this meeting, Ninok was also proud to welcome back the presence of guests from Timor-Leste. Ninok also felt that this visit coincided with UMN’s goal of becoming a world-class University.

Ninok welcomes and sends a message to the Minister of Education, Science, and Culture of Timor-Leste. (Doc. UMN).

“I hope this visit can support each other from both sides, and the important thing is our spirit. Indonesia itself, although it looks advanced, still needs education and education. There are still many things that need to be developed too, so I hope that from this collaboration, we can both provide great benefits for the future,” Ninok said. 

The Minister of Education, Science, and Culture of Timor-Leste is interested in working with UMN and MNP in many fields, especially in the education sector, to expand cooperation and grow together.

Jose delivering his opening greetings to UMN. (Doc. UMN)

“It is an honor for me to visit UMN, I am very grateful for inviting us to visit. I hope this collaboration can pave the way for UMN to collaborate with universities in Timor-Leste. Although Timor-Leste is a small country, we are very concerned about education,” Jose said. 

Dalia Suzana Pereira Mesquita, Technical Advisor of Cooperation and Partnership, opened the discussion between UMN, MNP, and the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Timor Leste. 

In this discussion, strategic talks to initiate more concrete cooperation were discussed more deeply with the aim of realizing the agreed-upon points of collaboration shortly. The first step in welcoming collaboration is forming a team for more intense communication and technical and operational strategic discussions by the Ministry, UMN, and MNP. 

“We want to prepare human resources who have the spirit of creativity and innovation to develop Timor-Leste, because now we can work together and expand to other ASEAN countries. While cooperating with foreign universities, we internally need to know what needs to be developed from Timor-Leste,” Dalia said.

To open this discussion, Andrey explained several aspects that can be collaborated.

“We from UMN are strengthening our cooperation with ASEAN countries. Of course, the collaboration that can be done is the exchange of students and lecturers from UMN or MNP, and it can be online, full-time, or hybrid,” Andrey said.

Muliawati G Siswanto added that UMN has a master’s program that can also be used as an opportunity for teachers in Timor-Leste. 

“UMN also has Master’s programs, the Master of Communication Science and Master of Cultural Management. We welcome Timor-Leste lecturers who want to join UMN’s master’s program. This is so that when they return to Timor-Leste, they can teach students better, which I think is very important,” Muliawati said. 

Another focus of cooperation that can be collaborated is community service from UMN and Timor-Leste.

“LPPM feels that it can carry out cooperation with Timor-Leste, such as joint research with lecturers. We can also develop businesses in Timor-Leste digitally, so that people can sell online, both from business planning to execution. In addition, we can also carry out KKN in Timor-Leste for students at UMN,” Winarno said.

Continuing this discussion, UMN is very interested in collaborating in the fields of big data, cloud computing, and cybersecurity. Jose also considers cybersecurity necessary because of the need for state data security.

In addition, Roy Anthonius Susanto from MNP stated in his presentation that he was interested in helping the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Timor-Leste develop Vocational Polytechnics in Timor-Leste.

“We from MNP happen to want to update our curriculum, in my opinion it is very interesting if we can assemble the curriculum together. We can actively collaborate to build the Vocational Polytechnic together,” Roy said.

Closing this discussion, Teddy suggested that the two parties form a team. It could be by creating a person-in-charge first so that in the future, they can collaborate from planning to evaluation. He hopes this collaboration can be productive, realize what all parties want, and be carried out wholeheartedly. 

By Rachel Tiffany Tanukusuma | UMN News Service

English translation by Levina Chrestella Theodora

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