Bogor – Minister of Defense (Menhan) Prabowo Subianto attended the graduation of 573 students of the Bachelor’s (S1), Master’s (S2), and Doctorate (S3) programs at the University of Defense (Unhan) in Sentul, Bogor, on Monday (12/2).
A total of 573 students consisted of 17 doctoral students, 273 Defense Strategy Faculty students, 69 Defense Management Faculty students, 82 National Security Faculty students, 57 Defense Science and Technology Faculty students, and 75 Military Medicine Faculty students.
In his speech, Prabowo emphasized that Indonesia must catch up with the development of Human Resources in the fields of Science, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM), and medicine.
“Our future will be determined by the STEM revolution, including medicine. So, we have to catch up, we have to be brave enough to admit that we are lagging behind (other developed countries),” Prabowo said.
He explained that Unhan has taken a step forward by establishing four new faculties in the field of STEM, including a medical and engineering faculty, and a hydrology program which is not owned by several universities in Indonesia.
“I have instructed Unhan to add a special study program in hydrology. Now, they can prove their practical role directly in addressing the difficulties of our people. They are searching for and producing clean water,” he said.
According to him, clean water is a strategic and scarce commodity. Moreover, the United Nations (UN) predicts that the world will soon be hit by three major crises: food, energy, and water.
“We have extraordinary natural resources, we have to be able to reach them, master them, and contribute to their development with STEM and all basic sciences,” Prabowo said.
Therefore, he hopes that Unhan graduates can make a significant contribution to the people and the country. Moreover, to pursue education at Unhan, candidates must pass strict intelligence and academic achievement selection.
“I ask that in your minds, you must make a significant contribution. You have the ability, because the requirements we give to you are quite high. I take the standards (of education) from the best universities in the world,” he explained.
Prabowo hopes that in the future, Unhan can add more study programs and students without reducing the high quality of selection and academic standards that have been applied.
“Unhan must truly be a center of excellence with academic quality equivalent to the best universities in the world,” he concluded. (SENOPATI)
