Historical Background

The establishment of the Faculty of Letters began with the Decree of the Minister of Higher Education of Sciences No. 190/1965 commencing on 25 August 1965. Initially, the Faculty of Letters only had one department, the Department of Indonesian Language and Literature, with 45 students. In the early 1966, the Faculty of Letters had its own building located in the front of Dharma Wanita USU Kindergarten, but this building was very small. One year later, the Faculty of Letters received an additional building (which used to be the building of Public Works) on Jl. Prof. Muhammad Yusuf. This building, however, was also small and not sufficient for lecturing purposes because there were only four rooms, two of them were used for lecturing process and the other two were used for administration office.

In 1966, the Department of English Literature was launched with 50 students. In 1967, the Faculty of Letters moved to the Pancasila Building. The area was adequate but the water and electricity facilities were inadequate. In 1968, the Department of History opened. It did not have any activity because no students enrolled, but in 1970, the department received the first batch of students. In 1972, the Faculty of Letters received three permanent building units. In 1979, the Department of Local Literature concentrating on Batak Literature was opened. In 1979, the Department of Ethnomusicology was opened, and up to 1989, this was the only Department of Ethnomusicology in Indonesia. In 1980, the Undergraduate Programs of Arabic, Anthropology and Library Sciences were opened, but in 1983 the Department of Library Sciences was closed and instead the Library Diploma Degree Study Program was opened. The Department of Anthropology was moved to the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, based on the Decree of Rector No. 163/PTO5/SK/0/86 on 4 May 1986. The development of the Faculty of Letters, with its language and literature orientation, has been known by the urban and rural communities from the northern to the southern areas of North Sumatra.

In the meeting of 25 members of the Faculty Advisory Board chaired by Prof. Syaifuddin, MA, PhD on 30 January 2010, it was decided that the name of Faculty of Letters would be changed to the Faculty of Cultural Sciences.The result of this meeting was then proposed to the Rector.

This proposal was agreed and the decree No. 981/H5.1.R/SK/PRS/2011 for the name change was issued by Rector (Prof. Dr. dr. Syahril Pasaribu, DTM&H, M.Sc (CTM), Sp.A(K) on 5 April 2011. At that time, the name of Faculty of Letters was changed to the Faculty of Cultural Sciences.

Vision: 

In 2020, the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, University of Sumatera Utara is going to become the center of excellence for education, research, and community service activities in the field of cultural sciences and humanities with controlling the information technology.

Mission:  

• To implement the three pillars of higher education oriented to modern organizational management.
• To optimally improve and empower financial support and regulations.
• To improve the quality of human resources in mastering and utilizing information and communication technology in the fields of education, research and community service.
• To increase the active participation of stakeholders for the interest of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences as an educational institution.
• To improve creativity and the quality of public interest-oriented education

Address

Jl. Universitas No. 19

USU Campus, Medan 20155

Phone : +62 61 8215956

Fax      : +62 61 8215956