UNS – Fall did not yet complete in Seoul, South Korea. The leaves that turn yellow and redden in the trees of the Chung-Ang University campus welcomed around 600 delegates from 54 universities and 41 countries who attended the QS-APPLE Conference & Exhibition 2018, Tuesday-Thursday (20-23/11/2018).
The QS Asia-Pacific Professional Leaders in Education (QS-APPLE) is the oldest Asia-Pacific international higher education conference and exhibition. An activity that aims to provide a platform for sharing knowledge and professional networks in helping higher education leaders from the Asia-Pacific region and beyond to understand the changes taking place in this sector. It is hoped that the higher education leaders can contribute to the further development of their institutions.
Many interesting themes in the development of universities were discussed in this forum. These themes include: internationalizing the student body, promoting the global employability of graduates, internationalizing the faculty, enhancing the global impact and reputation of research, and building a global university brand.
In the opening plenary session of the first day, Prof. Subra Suresh, President of Nanyang Technology University, Singapore conveyed the importance of Humanity 4.0 when many parties prepared themselves for the Industry 4.0 revolution. In his presentation entitled Opportunities & Challenges for Global Universities, Prof. Suresh emphasized the development of human characteristics and the sustainability of the earth’s environment that we live in amidst technological disruption. It was expected that universities will play a role in teaching compassion, dignity, empathy, ethics, kindness, love, respect in producing technological innovations.
In line with this issue, Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta presented at QS-APPLE 2018 by bringing its innovation about natural dyes for the zero-waste and environmentally friendly convection industry. Along with other top 11 Indonesian cluster one universities, UNS filled the Indonesian Pavilion booth.
The cold weather outside the Centennial Building Chung-Ang University which hit -2 degrees Celsius on the second day of the QS-APPLE 2018 event did not dampen the enthusiasm of the QS-APPLE 2018 conference and exhibition delegation to promote themselves and actively establish communication in finding partners’ potential. UNS had the opportunity to conduct pilot talks on cooperation and agreement with Youngsan University (WISEU) and Chung-Ang University in South Korea to collaborate in student mobility and non-academic staff mobility programs. This program is expected to be realized in 2019.
Finally this activity was a very strategic forum for participants to engage and collaborate with international representatives and build partnerships between universities. The first snow that fell in Seoul City accompanied the return of the 2018 QS-APPLE delegation to their respective countries. Memories about Fashionable Seoul which is a branding campaign for Seoul in 2018 will help the delegates remember the realization of the agreed-upon cooperation agreements during the event. Collaborating rather than competing becomes a shared spirit to form a better world. humas-red.uns/Tni/Dty
