Universitas Siswa Bangsa Internasional, or Sampoerna University, is an international university located in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is the first Indonesian university to offer an accredited U.S. degree entirely within Indonesia.
History
In 2009, the Putera Sampoerna Foundation founded the Sampoerna School of Education to address the insufficient number of high-quality math and English teachers in Indonesia. This was followed in 2010 by PSF's establishment of the Sampoerna School of Business which offered degree programs in accounting, finance, marketing and management. In 2013, both SSE and SSB were relaunched as the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Business and Economics, respectively. Together with newly launched Faculty of Art, Design and Media and the Faculty of Science and Technology, as well as the new Institute of Languages and Communication, they now constitute the academic units of Universitas Siswa Bangsa Internasional.
U.S. associate degrees and transfers
USBI is the first university to offer an accredited U.S. associate degree in Indonesia. Upon entry to any USBI degree program, students are automatically dual-enrolled in Lone Star College, a community college in Houston, Texas. Students earn both Lone Star College System and USBI credit during their first two years of study. After the successful completion of two years of study, students are awarded a Lone Star College associate degree. This is the first such mechanism awarding American and Indonesian credits to students in Indonesia. Following the award of an associate degree, students are eligible to transfer to any university in the United States that recognizes Lone Star College System credit. Past transfers from LSCS have successfully graduated from universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UCLA, Texas A&M University, and Texas Tech University, among others.
Campus
The 6 hectare rental USBI campus is located in Pancoran, South Jakarta. Following a million dollar renovation in 2012, classrooms now have walls which are usable whiteboard surfaces and can be reconfigured to accommodate large lectures or small discussion groups. Campus facilities include a 9,000 book library, an auditorium, MBPS soccer field, volleyball court, badminton court, health clinic, a student-run café, two language labs, and three computer labs. Campus space is also devoted to a wet lab for biology and chemistry. A canteen is under development. Four art studios house a photography lab, filming and journalism equipment, and a "future studio" which highlights emerging technologies. A professional game development space is being constructed for teaching and industry collaboration.
Academics
All USBI courses are taught in English and are aligned with industry needs through the oversight of industry advisory boards. Curriculum is designed around experiential learning, with most degree programs requiring an internship. Additionally, all students are required to take courses in leadership, entrepreneurship, and social responsibility. USBI currently offers 14 undergraduate degree programs and 24 unique conferrable degrees. Student from any degree program may transfer to universities overseas for years three and four of their program, thus earning a total of three degrees.
