USK Successfully Hosted The IMT-GT Varsity Carnival 2023
Universitas Syiah Kuala (USK) successfully hosted the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Varsity Carnival 2023, under the coordination of the Office of International Affairs (OIA), and supported by other work divisions of the university. The event was conducted from 8-12 July 2023.
Traditional dances from the three participating countries of the 22nd IMT-GT Varsity Carnival, namely Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, were performed to grace the opening ceremony at the AAC Dayan Dawood Building, Universitas Syiah Kuala, on 9 July 2023.
The number of participants who attended was 603 participants, consisting of 497 students and 167 officials. They came from 12 universities that are members of the IMT-GT forum. 4 of them are from Indonesia, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Universitas Negeri Medan, and Universitas Negeri Padang. Then 4 universities from Malaysia are Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Universiti Technology Mara Arau Perlis, University Malaysia Perlis, also 4 universities from Thailand are Prince of Songkla University, Rajamanggala University of Technology Srivijaya, Thaksin University, and Walailak University.
Presented at the opening ceremony, Acting Governor of Aceh, Achmad Marzuki. Wali Nanggroe of Aceh, Malik Mahmud, Deputy Attorney for Aceh, Rudi Irmawan, a number of the USK vices, and invited guests.
USK Rector, Prof. Dr. Ir. Marwan, officially opened the IMT-GT 2023 ceremony and said that the event brought three competitions as the main agenda, they were sports, culture and seminars.
“I would like to deliver my appreciation to all contingent who came to Aceh. This activity re-opened the eyes of the global community to admire the IMT-GT, as a forum that unites various nations, with different cultural traditions, languages, thoughts and cultures,” said the Rector.
He hoped that the ties of educational diplomacy through that relationship and unity would continue to strengthen all aspects to produce brave, confident, idealistic, and competent youths.
“I also would like to send my appreciation to Office of International Affairs for suggesting a new component into this varsity carnival, that is the International Food Festival,” he said.
According to him, this clearly showed that unity is not only fostered through sports, culture and seminars, the element of food diversity is also included, to open the understanding of the international community environment.
The USK Rector highlighted that the IMT-GT did not only promote competition among neighboring countries, but also became a space for challenging and showing up students’ abilities, talent and physical strength to grab achievements in sports, culture and seminars.
Meanwhile, the President of IMT-GT Varsity Council, Ahmad Martadha Mohamed, on the same occasion, commended USK for trying to give their best to the contingents.
“I would like to say thank you to USK, we do appreciate the university’s hard work in trying to be a good host. Hopefully the educational diplomacy among IMT-GT countries will continue and be sustainable,” said the President.
For this year, Universitas Syiah Kuala came up as the General Winner for the IMT-GT Varsity Carnival 2023.
Beside competitions in sports, arts and seminars, USK also took chance to promoted the richness of Acehnese cultural wisdom by visiting the Aceh Tourism Village of Lubok Sukon in Aceh Besar and conducting the city tour.
