NIMS signs a Comprehensive Collaborative Agreement (CCA) and an International Cooperative Graduate Program (ICGP) Agreement with Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia

Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) was founded in 1920, later became the Faculty of Engineering in Universitas Indonesia (University of Indonesia) for a while, and has been the present ITB since 1959. The first Indonesian President, Mr. Soekarno, graduated ITB in 1926. It has a student body of about 20,000 including 5,000 post-graduates, and 1,200 faculty members are teaching them. ITB is one of the universities most popular yet difficult to enter for students in Indonesia, and it is regarded as a model school for engineering education by the Indonesian Government.

Many major universities in Japan such as the University of Tokyo are implementing student exchange programs and research collaboration with ITB. The Japanese Government initiated support of ITB through the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) in 1990s for campus improvements and overseas study programs. Now JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) is supporting ITB to construct the new Nanocenter, to be open in Fall 2015, and to install top-notch research equipment. Almost 10 Indonesian students and post-docs are working at NIMS right now and most of them are graduates of ITB.

In the last September, ITB delegation headed by Rector Prof. Akhmaloka visited NIMS and expressed a wish for the two agreements. Based on the active cooperation between ITB and Japan, in particular with NIMS as mentioned above, the two agreements have been signed. Since this is the first CCA and ICGP with an Inonesian academic institution for NIMS, further enhancement of research collaboration and student exchanges with not only ITB but also other academic institutions in Indonesia is definitely expected.