In September 2021, 34 Indonesian Bachelor students started a Minor at the ITC Faculty, University of Twente. These students are participating in an HTHT Minor: Geographic Information System and Earth Observation. The students are sponsored by the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology as part of a scholarship program, the Indonesian Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) in cooperation with the University of Twente. This group of students will study at the ITC Faculty until February 2022. We spoke to Farhan Trouerbach, the class representative of this group.
Welcome to Twente! Are you excited about your time here?
‘Yes! I have been living in Indonesia my whole life. I am currently an undergrad at Universitas Indonesia, majoring in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. As a student and an academic, I have a strong passion for research and education. Therefore, I am very excited about this opportunity to have a taste of education in another country. I also believe that we got here at the right place and the right time, as the University of Twente starts to open for offline learning instead of online classes. This allows me to get back to have that campus feeling again.
As for my personal growth, I have finally achieved my dream to be in another country. It’s my first time going abroad and be in the Netherlands. I have a long-lost family here and I can finally reconnect to them. I had a good time sharing my experience in Indonesia. I learned a lot from them, especially the Dutch family values that are more progressive towards parenting and child development.’
What are your initial thoughts on the University of Twente?
‘The University of Twente is very welcoming. What piqued my interest in the University of Twente is the combination of technology and society, what you call ‘High Tech, Human Touch’. The strong emphasis on technology motivates me to find new things academically, especially in such a new environment of study discipline. Studying at the ITC Faculty has pushed me to get out of my shell and be more skillful in other fields of discipline. As I am taking my minor in HTHT: Geographic Information System and Earth Observation, I can utilize my skills in GIS applications such as QGIS and ArcGIS in my engineering careers in the future to study and map the potential of minerals and mining fields.
As for the cultural perspective, I have noticed that the Dutch are very open and direct. They are very progressive towards current problems and events. That in itself is an interesting experience for me to learn from them and figure out what to do next for my generation about larger topics such as climate change in developed countries.’
What do you look forward to most regarding your education?
‘The funny thing is, we are here for just a couple of weeks but I have learned so much already. Living abroad in a different culture is a fantastic experience itself. Besides the knowledge I will gain from my minor at ITC, I have another subject of interest. I want to learn more about the educational system here. How do you educate your students? For instance, I find the aspect of challenge-based learning intriguing. It is a very good approach to get students involved in wicked problems. I hope to take some knowledge of that with me as well to the universities in Indonesia.’
