On Monday, March 2 2020, at the Maranatha Christian University (UKM) Hall, the inauguration procession of Prof. Sri Widiyantoro as UKM Chancellor for the period 2020 – 2024. Prof. Sri Widiyantoro a.k.a Prof. Ilik replaces Prof. Armein Z. R. Langie who is Chancellor of UKM for the 2016-2020 period. Prof. Ilik is a member of the Global Geophysics Expertise Group (KK) who previously served as Dean of the Faculty of Mining and Petroleum Engineering – ITB for the period 2011 – 2015 (term 1) and 2015 – February 2020 (term 2).

In his speech, Prof. Ilik  said that in the current era of disruption and industry 4.0, the challenges ahead will certainly be even greater. Changes are occurring and will continue to occur more rapidly, therefore, to deal with them we need to increase the speed of taking initiatives, processes in resolving challenges and making the right decisions.

In the summary of the paper, Prof. Ilik wrote that currently SMEs have made a lot of progress. Several crucial things to improve in the next four years are: (i) human resource development, (ii) increasing the number of student admissions, and (iii) developing an appropriate curriculum to prepare UKM graduates with superior, professional character, ready to work and create new job opportunities in this era of disruption. For this reason, Prof. Ilik proposed the ICE work program: Initiative, Collaborative, Excellence.

The initiative program (initiative) will focus on the three things above through collaboration that is continuously improved to achieve excellence as stated in the Statute and the Master Plan for SME Development.

The collaboration program will emphasize mutualistic cooperation with stakeholders, including alumni, to jointly actively promote the progress that UKM has achieved with other universities, government, industry and society.

The excellence program emphasizes prioritizing quality in every activity to achieve the best results. The mentality of always trying the best really needs to be developed in every individual from the large UKM family.

Next, Prof. Ilik welcomed the change in UKM from a teaching university to a teaching research university. This will provide every lecturer with the opportunity to increase research activities and publish articles in reputable scientific journals. So the impact will increase the reputation of SMEs in a better position. (ZFZ)