Dr. Honey: An Academic Visit to USU, Medan, Indonesia

Medan is the capital of the province of North Sumatra, Indonesia. Located in the northern part of the province along the coast, Medan is the third largest city in Indonesia. The city is bordered by Deli Serdang Regency to the east, south, and west, and the Strait of Malacca to the north.

The city is Indonesia's third most populous after Jakarta and Surabaya, with approximately 2.5 million people. The city has a mix of communities, reflecting its history. It is famous throughout Indonesia as the home of the Batak people, although, traditionally it is a Melayu Kampung. More recently more and more of the Batak ethnic minority have come to the city to make what was once a minority become a fairly sized community. However, Batak homelands are found throughout North Sumatra. In addition, there is a large ethnic Javanese community, largely made up of the descendants of people transported from Java in the last century as part of the government's transmigration policy, an attempt to relieve the chronic overcrowding of Java.

A highly visible component of Medan's population is the large number of Chinese, who are very active in the business sector, and unlike the ethnic Chinese in many other parts of Indonesia continue to speak Hokkien. Finally, the city has a sizable community of Tamil descent who are commonly known as keling. A well-known Tamil neighbourhood is Kampung Keling. In addition to Indonesian, Batak Simalungun, Batak Karo, Batak Mandailing, Batak Pak-Pak, Batak Angkola, Batak Toba, Deli Malay, Javanese, Hokkien (Min Nan), Tamil, Acehnese, Minangkabau and English are spoken.

There are several historic places such as Maimun Palace (Istana Maimun), where the Sultan of Deli still lives, and the Great Mosque (Masjid Raya) of Medan built in 1906.

One of the unique features of Medan are the motorized becaks that are found almost everywhere. Unlike traditional becaks, a motorized becak can take its passenger anywhere in the city. The fare of riding a 'becak' is relatively cheap and is usually negotiated beforehand.There are also more common transport like taxis and minibuses, known as sudako.

Just arrived =>>

Our breakfast in Medan =>>

Motorized becaks =>>

The Great Mosque (Masjid Raya) =>>

Maimun Palace =>>

Our Madani Hotel =>>

University Sumatera Utara (USU) at a Glance

At the beginning of its establishment, USU was prepared to be a center of higher education in Western parts of Indonesia. When established in 1952, USU was a Foundation, changes its status into a public university in 1957, and then become a legal entity in 2003.

USU has vision to become University for Industry (UfI) and missions viz. (1) preparing students to become morally society's members with academic and/or professional and/or vocational capability to apply, develop, and enrich science, technology and art; (2) developing and disseminating science, technology, and art, particularly on industrial based cooperation, as well as developing its applications to improve society's prosperity and enrich the national culture; (3) supporting democratic civil society development through the role of USU as an autonomy moral force to achieve strong capability in global competitive environment through managing professionally human resources, widening participation in learning, inspiring national demand for learning, and modernizing the supply of learning.

USU campus is located in Padang Bulan, 120 ha green and shady area situated in the center city of Medan. An academic zone, 90 ha widely accommodates almost the whole activities of learning and practical of students. The learning systems are supported by library facilities and more then 200 laboratories. The library provides various of learning resources both in print and electronic form. The university library is currently one of the best libraries in Indonesia. Padang Bulan campus is also supported by IT infrastructure to facilitate access to various information resources and knowledge to support learning processes and researches of students and lecturers.

USU has 13 faculties/school viz. Medicine, Law, Agriculture, Engineering, Dentistry, Economics, Letters, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Political Science, Public Health, Pharmacy, Psychology, and Postgraduate. It offers 101 programmes consist of 8 doctoral, 28 masters, 15 medical specialists, 5 professional programmes, 50 undergraduates, and 15 diploma degrees. There are currently 32.000 registered students, where 688 of them are overseas students.

The Venue : Faculty of Economy =>>