USK Introduced Disaster Study Program to URI

Delegations from the USA, the University of Rhode Island (URI) conducted Study Tour to Universitas Syiah Kuala. During the visit, USK introduced one of the university’s excellence, that is the Disaster Mitigation Program, on 5 June 2023.

The delegations that are students and lecturers were led by Dr. Brook W. Ross. Their visit was welcomed by USK Rector, Prof. Dr. Ir. Marwan. In his remarks, the Rector said that this visit was special because it could strengthen the ties of cooperation that had been built so far.

“We hope one day Dr. Brook and the URI team can come back again to Aceh with various other collaboration programs with USK”, Rector said.

On this occasion, Dr. Brook appreciated the university’s welcome. He considered that the various collaboration and disaster research programs offered by USK were very meaningful for the life of the wider community.

“Thank you for inviting us to collaborate. This is a great opportunity,” he said.

USK Disaster Science Masters Study Program Coordinator, Dr. Rina Suryani Oktari, S.Kep., M.Si, in her presentation, introduced the USK disaster study program to the URI team. She delivered that this study program aimed to produce great human resources in the field of disaster management. Their presence is expected to support government efforts related to disaster mitigation, especially in Aceh.

In addition, so far USK has also collaborated with various top universities globally regarding planned risk reduction programs. For example, the University Network for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management in Indian Ocean Rim (UN4DRR) program under the coordination of Erasmus+.

There are nine universities involved in this program, they are Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, University of Nicosia, Cyprus, University of Zagreb, Croatia, The Maldives National University, Maldives, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, Institut Pertanian Bogor University, Indonesia, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Universitas Syiah Kuala, Indonesia.

The Head of the Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Research Center (TDMRC), Prof. Dr. Syamsidik, ST., M.Sc said this was a good chance for us USK to promote TDMRC at the global level, also campus can offer disaster study to URI students, as well as internship or joint research program.