USK Hosted The 1st Virtual IMT-GT Varsity Carnival 2021
Universitas Syiah Kuala hosted the 1st Virtual Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Varsity Carnival 2021, under the coordination of the Office of International Affairs (OIA), and supported by other work divisions of the university. The event was successfully conducted virtually from 27 September till 1 October 2021.
The last Varsity Carnival event that was held face-to-face was in Thailand, hosted by Walailak
University in 2019. Today, due to the pandemic of COVID-19, the event was postponed and held in 2021. It was organized virtually for the first time, hosted by Universitas Syiah Kuala, titled the 1st Virtual IMT-GT Varsity Carnival 2021.
“There are 11 universities will compete in three categories of competition, they are sport, culture, and seminar. For the sports competition, we have obtained 137 videos. There are 4 sports challenges including burpee, skipping rope, juggling, and push up, by a total of 137 athletes. For cultural presentation, there are 20 videos for two categories, Cultural Full Performance and Cultural Academic Presentation. For the Seminar category, Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) will be in charge of the whole seminar activity. We would like to appreciate USU for the support of this 1st Virtual IMT-GT Varsity Carnival”, said Dr. Muzailin Affan in the opening speech.
Particularly for the seminar, it took the theme Palm Oil Sustainable Supply Chain and Sustainable Landscape and invited a number of foreign and local expert speakers from their fields.
Meanwhile Prof. Dr. Hendrik Lamsali, President of IMT GT Varsity Council Assoc., said at the opening ceremony “IMT-GT Varsity Carnival is an event that we must hold together. This event makes us closer across different cultures and countries. I would like to give my appreciation to Universitas Syiah Kuala and all committees who have made this event successful. I also would like to appreciate all participants who participated enthusiastically in this event although it was done virtually”.
In this year’s event, Thaksin University came as General Winner. Meanwhile, Universitas Syiah Kuala has successfully won 1st place for the Juggling Female category, 4th place for the Juggling Male category, 2nd place for Burpee Female category, 4th place for Burpee Male category, and 1st place for Creative Video category.
In addition, IMT-GT Varsity Carnival is an annual event that has 12 universities as the member. From Indonesia they are Universitas Syiah Kuala, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Institut Teknologi Medan, and Universitas Negeri Medan. From Malaysia they are Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Universiti Teknology Mara and Universiti Malaysia Perlis. Meanwhile from Thailand they are Prince of Songkla University, Rajamanggala University of Technology Srivijaya, Thaksin University and Walailak University.
The interrelation among universities of the growth triangle countries has gone a long way through the years. The spirit of regional cooperation and solidarity upheld by Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand over the years remains steadfast in the setting up of the IMT-GT Varsity Carnival in 2007. The activities provide a platform for university students in these regions to exchange and interact through sports, cultural and seminar activities. These organized activities are designed for the purpose of improving, enriching, and geared towards promoting solidarity, goodwill, understanding, and comradeship of universities on the true IMT-GT spirit.
