Emotion and happiness enveloped the Meeting Room III of the rectorate building, on Wednesday morning (6/12/2023). The reason is, Rector of UNIB, Dr. Retno Agustina Ekaputri, S.E, M.Sc. who had just returned from a working visit to Germany announced the results of international accreditation by the ACQUIN institution for 69 study programs around the University of Bengkulu.
“We know, since November 2022, we have always been waiting for what and how the results of the ACQUIN accreditation of 69 study programs at UNIB are. Therefore, I and the Vices made a working visit to Germany last week and the result is, we have now brought home 69 ACQUIN International Accreditation Certificates for UNIB,” said Dr. Retno Agustina Ekaputri, S.E, M.Sc, while showing a pile of certificates in front of her.
Hearing the Rector’s statement, immediately the atmosphere of applause thundered accompanied by expressions of gratitude from the deans and heads of institutions around UNIB who were invited to the meeting. “Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, UNIB is great, UNIB is superior!,” said the meeting participants.
Continuing his explanation, the Rector revealed that during her visit to the AQCUIN’s management office in Germany, she was not alone but accompanied by the Vices Rector I, Prof. Dr. Mochamad Lutfi Firdaus, S.Si, M.Sc; Vice Rector II, Yefriza, S.E, MPPM, Ph.D.; and Vice Rector III, Prof. Dr. Candra Irawan, S.H, M.Hum.
“After we coordinated with ACQUIN, we are finally allowed to take home 69 ACQUIN Certificates. These 69 certificates are for international accreditation of study programs and one international accreditation certificate for institutions. These certificates will be valid for the next 6 years,” said Dr. Retno.
Further, by obtaining 69 ACQUIN Certificates, UNIB is currently the only higher education institution in Indonesia that has been internationally accredited by ACQUIN, in addition to breaking the record as the university with the most study programs accredited by ACQUIN.
“Alhamdulillah, we succeeded. This is our success. Therefore, we would like to thank everyone and on Monday we ask all deans to invite all study programs along with the entire ACQUIN accreditation task force to gather at the UNIB Multipurpose Building (GSG) for the certificate handover ceremony to each study program,” explained Dr. Retno Agustina Ekaputri.
As previously informed, ACQUIN (The Accreditation, Certification and Quality Assurance Institute) is a registered association with EQAR (European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education). This institution is headquartered in Bayreuth – Germany.
EQAR is an international accreditation, certification, and quality assurance institution recognized by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) of the Republic of Indonesia, as stated in the Decree of the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia Number 83/P/2020 dated January 24, 2020.
ACQUIN aims to accredit undergraduate and master’s programs in all disciplines and at all types of universities to ensure high-quality degree programs, create market transparency, increase the attractiveness of universities to foreign students, and promote comparability of academic degrees. ACQUIN membership already includes more than 150 universities in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the United States, Liechtenstein, Egypt, Mongolia and Lebanon.
To encourage the realization of the vision as an international university and improve the achievement of IKU (Key Performance Indicators), in 2022 UNIB will carry out this international accreditation for all undergraduate study programs (Bachelor) and postgraduate programs (Magister and Doctoral), as well as institutional accreditation, bringing the total to 70 accreditations.
There are only 2 (two) more study programs at UNIB that will follow to undergo international accreditation in the coming years because these 2 study programs are newly established study programs at the Faculty of Agriculture, namely the Postgraduate Study Program (Doctoral) Natural Resource Management (PSDA) and the Undergraduate Program (Bachelor) Environmental Science.
The peak of this international accreditation process occurred in November 2022 when the ACQUIN Management Team made a direct visit to the UNIB campus to review the facilities and infrastructure as well as various relevant facilities. The ACQUIN Team also facilitated an assessment by the Expert Group connected via Zoom and other online applications.
As the Public Relations Team noted, the experts who carried out the assessment were academics from various universities abroad. The expert group that assessed the study programs at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP), for example, included Prof. Dr. Tibor Gyalog (University of Applied Sciences & Arts Northwestern Switzerland); Prof. Dr. Carl Winsløw (University of Copenhagen); Prof. Dr. Dirk Krüger (Freie Universitat Berlin); Prof. Dr. Andreas Borowski (University of Potsdam); Prof. Dr. Timm Wilke (Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena); Prof. Dr. Sebastian Habig (Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg); and Professor Linda Evans (University of Manchester).
Then the expert group that assessed the Faculty of Engineering, including Professor Hans Edin (KTH Royal Institute of Technology); Prof.mag.arch. Wolfgang Grillitsch (University of Applied Sciences Karnten); Professor Kari T. Koskinen (Tampere University); Prof. Dr. Ulrike Lechner (University of the German Federal Armed Forces in Munich); Professor Thomas Asmus Pedersen (University of Southern Denmark); and Professor Dr. Thomas Richter (Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences).
For the expert group that assessed the Faculty of Law, it was Prof. Dr. Mathias Schmoeckel (University of Bonn); and Prof. Dr. Thomas Schomerus (University of Lueneburg). Then to assess the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) there was the name Prof. Dr. Mike Geppert (Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena); Prof. Dr. Surender Munjal (University of Leeds); Prof. Almas Heshmati (Jőnkőping University); and Prof. Dr. Ulrike Stefani (University of Konstanz). And many other experts, according to their respective fields of science. [Author: Purna Herawan/Public Relations].