Alumni Urge IPB to Cancel Replacement of Agricultural Technology Faculty with School of Engineering

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Bogor Agricultural University or IPB has changed the Faculty of Agricultural Technology (Fateta) into a school of engineering. The change is stipulated in the Rector of IPB's Decree No. 444 of 2024 concerning the Change in the Management of All Study Programs at the Faculty of Agricultural Technology to the School of Engineering. The regulation was ratified by the rector on December 27, 2024.

The planned restructuring has met with rejection from the alumni. One of them is former IPB rector Aman Wirakartakusumah. He said that changing Fateta into a school of engineering is the same as changing IPB as a whole. According to him, Fateta is one of the faculties that is a hallmark of IPB as a university focused on agricultural development.

"We must understand that IPB is the tree of agriculture. It means that other fields such as economics and engineering can be established, but of course not to eliminate the main house (agricultural technology)," he told Tempo on Thursday, June 5, 2025.

Aman explained that Fateta is a hybrid form of engineering, natural sciences, management, and technology. This scientific orientation is to develop the agricultural sector from upstream activities such as mechanization and agricultural engineering to downstream activities such as processing agricultural products.

He said that this goal is different from the goal of pure engineering sciences, such as chemical and mechanical engineering, which, based on the rector's decree, will be merged with agricultural technology. Aman said that engineering knowledge is too broad and mostly does not touch on agriculture.

Aman does not reject the establishment of a school of engineering. However, he disagrees if Fateta is abolished and merged with the school. "Do not change what is already securely established into something ambiguous and unclear just to offer a new life," he said.

In addition to Aman, IPB alumni Sam Herodian, who is also a former dean of Fateta, also urged that the plan to abolish Fateta be canceled. According to him, the process of changing the structure does not align with the initial plan, which should have only established a school without eliminating other faculties.

He stated that the school of engineering formation committee also did not involve alumni, students, and IPB stakeholders in making decisions. "During the process from March to December, there were many processes that tended to be silent," he said.

When contacted separately, the interim Person in Charge of the Dean of the School of Engineering at IPB, Slamet Budijanto, said that the establishment of the school of engineering is a mandate from the academic architecture of IPB to develop engineering sciences in the fields of agriculture, maritime, and tropical biosciences.

However, because nearly 60 percent of the scientific valuation in Fateta currently consists of engineering, the idea emerged to merge the two for efficiency. "Imagine, when there is a school of engineering, and then there is Fateta which also deals with engineering, isn't this a waste of resources?" he said. "This will also imprison each other," he said.

In addition to the name of the faculty, Slamet ensures that nothing will change, be it the curriculum or the scientific orientation. "It may even strengthen what already exists," he said on Monday, June 9, 2025.

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