USU prepares an internationalization program with an ideal design for acceleration through 6 priority programs, namely Conducting Institutional Revitalization and Adaptive Governance, Adaptation of Tri-Dharma Tasks, Infrastructure Arrangement, Campus Digitalization, Campus Enterprise, and Cooperation. In the 2020-2024 Strategic Plan, USU aspires to become an international standard university characterized by local excellence.

The Rector said, the measurable parameter of this international standard is to be ranked among the world's top 500 universities (World Class University). Changes in institutional governance are carried out in stages by revising the organizational structure that is agile and meets the achievements of organizational performance, improving the quality of lecturer and education staff resources, revitalizing all infrastructure in the principle of sharing tools, and strengthening laboratory facilities owned.

In the academic field, the important substance that will be adapted is to improve the ability to digitize the learning process through hybrid learning processes and facilitate the creation of collaborative and participatory classes. In the field of research and community service, what continues to be intensified is the increase of applied research through research groups with appropriate TKT to achieve downstreaming.

“Scientific products produced by USU must have commercialization value by involving industry in sharing funding and experiences that benefit both parties. To accelerate the implementation of this transformation, the role of USU Professors as leaders is highly expected to seed scientific developments on the USU Campus which have an impact on offering practical solutions to social problems and public policies by strategic industries and government and community institutions,” said Mury.

USU also responded to the Ministry of Research and Technology's policy in determining three research themes that will receive priority funding, namely the themes of blue economy, green economy, and digital/artificial intelligence. “We are starting to build new strengths by optimizing scientific products that have downstream and commercialization value, as well as writing journal and book publications that meet the requirements for use by the community or receive international recognition. One way is to increase cooperation with the industrial world,” explained the rector.

The Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) policy, the first priority program carried out by USU, is to deconstruct, recognize, and relax the learning curriculum so that it is no longer conventional. USU is initiating a design for organizing open classrooms by inviting practitioner lecturers and the industrial world to provide best experiences to students so that they can adapt more quickly to overcome problems in society.

It is not only structured learning that contains compulsory courses for study programs, but it also provides options for students for elective courses with 8 MBKM learning areas. The second priority program is matching funds through the Kedai Reka platform. Applied research will be designed by lecturers and professors so that scientific work, such as innovation, can be quickly used by industry. Appraisers of applied research that are excellent or highly competitive come from industries that meet the criteria of excellent standardization and have high economic value.

USU is also transforming in the field of community service. USU's community service model must target, among others, KPI 5, which is that the results of lecturers' work are used by the community or receive international recognition. For example, the Desa Binaan activities carried out by lecturers must produce a special learning project with clear and measurable measures to improve the welfare of the people in the village.

This transformation is part of a series of USU policies to achieve KPIs. Lecturers are expected to increase collaboration with universities that are included in the 100 QS WUR. Therefore, it is very important to collaborate through staff exchange programs such as sabbatical leave, joint research, joint publications, and inviting foreign lecturers to provide knowledge sharing and sharing experiences in teaching, research, and publication activities.

For institutional achievements, USU, for the first time in 2021, has made it into the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings, ranked 15th in universities in Indonesia, and ranked 801-1000 out of 1,115 universities in the world. USU also managed to rank 7th nationally in the ranking conducted by Scimago Institutions Rankings (SIR) at the end of April 2021 and ranked 708 globally. Based on 19 subject area assessments conducted by Scimago Institutions Rankings, USU is ranked 1st nationally and 305th in the world in the field of Agriculture and Biological Science at the university level. In addition, USU is also ranked 3rd nationally and ranked 420th in the world in the Business, Management, and Accounting sector. Meanwhile, in other fields, namely Biochemistry, Genetics, and Molecular Biology, USU is ranked 4th in Indonesia and 663rd in the world. The 4th position in Indonesia was also achieved by USU in the field of Environmental Science. Meanwhile, the QS Asia University Rankings (QS AUR) version in 2022, USU is ranked 19th Best University in Indonesia and ranked 501-550 out of 687 educational institutions in the Asian region assessed.

The achievements achieved by USU students in 2021 are also quite numerous, both at the local, national, and international levels, starting from the USU delegation winning the gold medal at the International Youth Scientist Association (IYSA) Semi-Grand Award at the 2021 Youth International Science Festival (YISF) to the qualification of 5 USU students in the Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) program. There is also Muhammad Dava Warsyahdhana, a student of the Department of Agrotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, USU class of 2017, who was inaugurated by the President of the Republic of Indonesia Ir. H. Joko Widodo as the Millennial Farmer Ambassador of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture. As well as many other achievements of USU students.

Not only achievements, 2021 USU has also completed a number of academic activities such as New Student Admissions, PKKMB, Graduation, Professor Inauguration, MBKM Dialogue with the Minister of Education and Research, IMTGT Event, PIMNAS, USU Games, and a number of other activities on a smaller scale. The peak of these activities was closed with the title of the offline graduation procession for the first time at USU. USU also participated in pandemic prevention by successfully carrying out various Covid-19 vaccination activities. As well as launching Telemedicine services that help the community to get fast services in medical treatment.

Meanwhile, in facility development, USU has launched the Aplikasi Satu Atap (ASA), E-Office, Agenda, and Whistle Blower System service facilities. This is the initial realization of the realization of One Data, System Integration, and Campus Digitalization at USU. Apart from the administrative field, campus digitalization also targets the electronic money movement. Several programs regarding this have been started by building a Virtual Account (VA) system for payment transactions. In addition to simplifying recording, this system is expected to build a controlled, integrative, and complete financial system.

These are the achievements and programs that have been achieved by USU throughout 2021. USU will improve performance so that it can be better and maximized in 2022, and carry out the entire process of change towards the best by rolling faster and on target. USU will continue to move forward in the following years with the spirit of 'Transformation Towards the Ultimate.'