“Today, all of you are officially accepted in this campus to pursue your studies. Even though ITB is known as the oldest technical institute in Indonesia, we are always up-to-date with the latest development and innovation of science,” Prof. Dr. Ir. Jaka Sembiring, M.Eng., Vice Rector for Academic and Student Affairs, declared in his opening speech.

The matriculation ceremony was held virtually via Youtube. All 1093 admitted postgraduate and professional students participated in the event.

Currently, ITB provides 52 master's and 27 doctoral study programs, with 8829 postgraduate students and 620 profession students considered active. Moreover, 75 of them are international students.

Prof. Jaka reminded the students that their background is not a hurdle in chasing higher education. He then introduced the following students who are the youngest among their batch: Naura Naryama Nayottama (FSRD; 20 years old) from the master’s program, Nathan (FTMD; 24 years old) from the doctoral program, and Vincent Evan Hogianto (SF; 20 years old) from the profession program.

With these students coming from different provinces, Prof. Jaka remarked that ITB belongs to everyone and welcomes anyone with a strong will to seek knowledge regardless of their gender, age, and origin.

“Next semester will be unique for many of us- most ITB activities will be held either hybrid or offline after one long year of online studying,” Prof. Jaka added. He pointed out the experiences during the pandemic can serve as an opportunity to implement Education 4.0, as planned by ITB.

To maintain the academic atmosphere on campus, the new-normal policies in ITB's will focus on research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, he hoped that ITB’s scholarship regulations can provide students with their needed tuition-waiver assistance while contributing to the impact, quality, and reputation of ITB.

Reporter & Translator: Ruth Nathania (Teknik Lingkungan, 2019)