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USU Holds Pre-Launching of EQUITY Program to Strengthen Its Steps Toward Becoming a World Class University

Published At

07 August 2025

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Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) held the Pre-Launching of the Enhancing Quality Education for International University Impacts and Recognition (EQUITY) Program on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, at the 8th Floor of the Digital Learning Center Building. The event is part of USU’s strategic efforts to strengthen its position as a World Class University and to support Indonesia’s higher education target of ranking among the QS WUR Top 500 and THE Impact Rankings Top 300.

The event was officially opened by the Rector of USU, Prof. Dr. Muryanto Amin, S.Sos., M.Si., who also presented the university’s key achievements over the past few years. In his presentation, the Rector highlighted that USU currently ranks between 1001–1200 in the QS World University Rankings (QS WUR) 2026 and 801–1000 in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings — a major driving factor behind the establishment of the EQUITY program.

“The EQUITY program is not merely about institutional branding; it is a structured effort to enhance academic quality, strengthen international collaborative research, and increase the social impact of our innovations,” stated Prof. Muryanto in his opening remarks.

The EQUITY program is an initiative by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemdiktisaintek), specifically designed for 23 Legal Entity State Universities (Perguruan Tinggi Negeri Berbadan Hukum or PTN-BH), including USU. Its primary focus is to accelerate higher education quality development programs to ensure global competitiveness.

In addition to the Rector’s presentation, the event also featured a session led by the Director of USU’s Directorate of Internationalization and Global Partnership, Prof. Dr. Eng. Himsar Ambarita, S.T., M.T. In his explanation, Prof. Himsar outlined USU’s strategies and plans for implementing EQUITY, which include improving the quality of internationally indexed publications and strengthening cross-country research collaborations.

“Our success will not be measured solely by the number of publications, but by their impact. Therefore, EQUITY will focus on enhancing field-weighted citation impact, fostering international collaboration, and promoting innovations aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” explained Prof. Himsar.

According to the data presented, 54% of USU lecturers currently have Scopus accounts and have served as first authors, while 22% still do not have Scopus profiles. EQUITY serves as an acceleration platform to encourage all lecturers to actively engage in reputable international publications. Moreover, key research areas such as environmental science, agriculture, and social sciences have been identified as priority fields for strengthening under this program.

The event was attended by members of the USU academic senate and faculty members who received research grants. The enthusiasm of participants was evident during the discussion session, where numerous questions were raised regarding opportunities for international research collaboration, mapping of priority research topics, and strategies to improve faculty h-index scores.

 

Through the Pre-Launching of EQUITY, USU reaffirms its commitment to becoming a university recognized not only at the national level but also globally. The program is expected to create an adaptive, collaborative, and impact-driven academic ecosystem that contributes meaningfully to society.

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