Universities in Saudi Arabia made a series of visits to Yogyakarta led by a delegation from the Ministry of Education of Saudi Arabia. One of them visited Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta and was received in the Main Conference Room of the Rector, Monday (20/2). The delegation from Saudi Arabia was led by the Head of Delegation Dr. Abdulrahman Ali M. Alamri from the Ministry of Education of Saudi Arabia, with members Dr. Sami Abdulrahman H. Alharbi from the Ministry of Education, Bapall Kamal Jameel A. Alwidyani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Salem N. Alsaedi Islamic University of Medinah and Dr. Bander Saeed A. Zahrani from Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University accompanied by Dr. Andi Holilulloh, M.A. from UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta.

Rector of UNY Prof. Sumaryanto in his speech said that this activity is part of the transformation of UNY from Public Service Agency University to Legal Entity University which will increase international cooperation with institutions and universities, including from Saudi Arabia. "In 2022, we ranked second among public service universities in Indonesia, 28th in Asia and 201 - 250th in international rankings in education," said the Rector. This position strengthens UNY to increase collaborative cooperation in the scope of education, research and community services with applications in student and lecturer exchanges, joint research, joint publications, double degrees and joint curriculum exchanges. It is hoped that this cooperation can improve academic quality between universities as a realization of the commitment to be down to earth in accordance with the mission of UNY to excel creatively and innovatively sustainably.

According to Dr. Abdulrahman Ali M. Alamri, his visit with his group to Yogyakarta and visiting UNY was because UNY is one of the leading universities in Indonesia and hopes that UNY will continue to advance to become an international standard university. "Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have long cooperated in various fields. Both countries are also active in the G20 forum," he said. The two countries also continue to grow economically and have many similarities. Saudi Arabia is also one of the countries that is taken into international account as one of the economic powers in various sectors including oil. Indonesia is one of the most important countries for Saudi Arabia because of its large population, especially its young people. This is a potential human resource to build capabilities that will grow more and more. Currently Saudi Arabia initiates collaboration in many matters such as investment, commercial and education, therefore the Saudi delegation visited Indonesia in order to establish cooperation with several higher education leaders in several provinces. The focus of this cooperation is on the study of Islam, health, engineering, cyber security, social science, computers, law and so on. All of these cooperation are under the umbrella of the Ministry of Education.

Dr. Abdulrahman Ali M. Alamri also explained that there are currently more than 50 Indonesian students studying in Saudi Arabia who are currently achieving the best titles from international students there. "Their dedication to study, attitude, respect and academic progress are very good," he said. Saudi Arabia has more than 400 scholarships for Indonesian students to study there from undergraduate, master's to doctoral levels. Saudi Arabia provides 700 scholarships each year for Indonesian students to study in the Kingdom due to the large population of young people in Indonesia so encouraging their success is one of the implementations to raise the potential of cooperation between the two countries.

The activity was carried out in full intimacy between participants from both countries. From UNY, the entire leadership, vice rectors, deans, directors, heads of institutions and the academic community were present. The visit ended with an exchange of souvenirs and a group photo. (Author : Dedy, Editor : Sudaryono, Translator: Muhammad Rizky Yasmin F)