Universitas Siliwangi was founded on a simple but enduring conviction: that education is the most powerful instrument for transforming the lives of individuals and the communities they belong to. That conviction has guided every decision we have made as an institution, from our academic programmes to our community partnerships, from our research agenda to the international collaborations we have chosen to pursue. It is this same conviction that makes our partnership with the R&D International Business School one of the most meaningful initiatives we have undertaken in recent years.

 

Tasikmalaya is a region of extraordinary potential. Its people are industrious, creative, and deeply rooted in a tradition of craftsmanship, agriculture, and entrepreneurship. Yet potential alone is not enough. What our students and young graduates need, alongside their academic credentials, is practical, internationally oriented business knowledge and the confidence to apply it in real markets, with real partners, across real borders. This is precisely what the R&D International Business School is designed to provide.

 

I am proud that our university serves as the academic home of this initiative. The collaboration between Universitas Siliwangi and the R&D International Business School reflects the kind of partnership that universities must build in the twenty-first century: locally committed, globally connected, and purpose-driven in the fullest sense of that phrase.

 

To the participants of the IBS programme: you have been selected because you have demonstrated the intelligence, the motivation, and the character to make the most of this opportunity. I encourage you to engage fully, to challenge yourselves, and to carry what you learn here back into the communities and businesses of Tasikmalaya. The region needs you, and I believe you are ready.

 

I offer my full support to the R&D International Business School and to all those who have worked to bring this programme to life. May this be the beginning of a long and consequential future-focused partnership.