The overall objective of the HE-AVIAP (Higher Education for AVIAtion Professions) seminar is to explore chances and requirements to integrate the prospective of universities more in education of aviation professions, as currently universities are only partly involved in education and training of education professions. This separation of aviation training from university education has historical reasons and is primarily caused by American tradition as the Americans, which have coined aviation over the last 70 years, still stick in qualification concepts of the past century.
As Higher Education is considered as the key resource to master the future, it is advisable to fill the educational gap between universities and aviation to provide graduates with advanced competences, beneficial for the aviation industry. More specifically: Until now universities are mainly involved to educate engineers for the design and the manufacturing of aircrafts, whereas pilots, maintenance personnel and air traffic controllers are trained and awarded outside and below university level. Thus, the extension of the educational scope of universities towards aircraft operation is the key element of the seminar.
But it is not wise that universities do this on their own. Science has to meet reality! Universities have to prove that they meet the high requirements of aviation. Aviation requires such a high level of safety and embodies so much knowledge and experiences behind their regulations and procedures that it is not an easy task to capture adequate university education. To develop adequate curricula and degrees intensive cooperation with aviation authorities and aviation industry is essential and must be performed at a high level of professional competence. Thus, the scope of participants must include high-level representatives from authorities, industry and universities. Furthermore, as aviation is international, the range of participants should also reflect this international dimension.
This was the yardstick in preparation of the seminar and this took most of the effort. But by listing the names of persons, who have promised to join and by compiling the agenda for the seminar, we got proud by the scope and the level of competence, we have brought together in this seminar.
It begins that Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, the former president of Indonesia, gives us the honor to give the opening address. Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie is not only an outstanding personality, but a man, who dedicated his life to aviation and the development of an aviation industry in Indonesia. As a young man he moved to Europe to study aeronautical engineering and to get the best available university education, followed by an impressive career in the German aviation industry. With that competence and that industrial experience he returned to Indonesia, ambitioned to build-up an aviation industry in Indonesia. That´s exactly the model of IULI, to equip students with European university education and to empower them to reach a high level of engineering competence. Therefore Habibie is the model for our aviation engineering students, despite that he will be unique.
Habibie´s overture will be followed by opening addresses of the Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN and the ambassador of the European delegation at ASEAN and the Deputy Head of the European delegation to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam. These diplomatic relations are important to process the idea into the political context and to process an ASEAN-wide scope, related to Europe from the beginning.
A definite highlight of the seminar will be that Polana B. Pramesti, the new Director General of DGCA Indonesia will then open the floor, to report on the growth of aviation in South East Asia and the consequences for future education & training. Her presentation will be supplemented by colleagues from ICAO, EASA, the director of Naviagation within DGCA and the head of the National Transportation Safety Committee, KNKT, Dr. Ir. Soerjanto Tjahjono. This scope of presentation and the competence of the presenters will allow the participants, to get a comprehensive picture on future challenges in aviation.
The floor, opened by the view on aviation development by the authorities will subsequently be enlarged by presentations of industry and pilot associations. Also here we proudly can announc, that no less than Ir. Iwan Joeniarto, CEO of Pt GMF AeroAsia itself will give a description and an outlook of the situation in the aircraft maintenance sector.
The first seminar day will be rounded off by a presentation of Prof. Nikitakos on the situation in Greece, which as an Island country is faced as well with similar challenges to develop aviation to meet future requirements. Finally the first day will be completed by a presentation of Prof. Hamacher, transitioning to the subjects of the second day.
Whereas the first day is dedicated, to picture the development of aviation from industry´s and authorities view, the second day of the seminar is designated to show the models, already available at universities and the potentials to enhance these activities. These, more university based presentations, will be on an exceptional broad scope internationalization. Apart from presenting IULI´s own model of cooperating education, representatives on executive level from universities from France and Austria as well as from Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Taiwan and Bandung will describe their aviation related HE-models, they have already in operation and what measures there have already initiated to enhance these activities in future. This will be complemented by a presentation of the head of STPI, a long- established aviation school in Indonesia covering pilot training, training of aircraft mechanics and air traffic controller. These presentations will show that Asian universities have already models in use, who are more sophisticated than the traditional models from the US and that there is already a big potential of networking between universities in Asia to promote new models of education & training and to exploit synergies.
Indeed, given the scope of presentations and the people behind, this will be an exceptional seminar. With modesty it can be claimed that this is the first seminar or congress on this subject, on this level and on this scope worldwide. A great opportunity for a new university like IULI, where intellectual competence and networking are the keys.