The Management Study Program at MH Thamrin University (UMHT) implemented an innovative final semester exam (UAS) method through the Innovation Festival (INOVEST) 2026 event. Instead of dealing with written question sheets, students were challenged to present their business ideas and real solutions directly to an expert panel consisting of academics, government officials, industry players, and media representatives.
Carrying the theme "Testing the Ideas and Courage of the Gen Z Generation", this event applied an authentic assessment method. This evaluation approach focuses the assessment on the students' capacity to solve real-world problems in society through accountable collaboration and innovation.
A lecturer of the related course at UMHT, Alip Purnomo, explained that competition in the modern workforce demands graduates who think critically and offer solutions. Through INOVEST, students are not only tested theoretically, but also trained in aspects of mentality, leadership, analytical skills, and presentation techniques in convincing stakeholders.
In the process, students of the Cooperative Management course first conducted field observations of various local cooperatives to formulate improvement recommendations based on real data. Meanwhile, students from the Entrepreneurship, Start-Up, and Innovation classes drafted comprehensive business plans using the Business Model Canvas (BMC) framework, covering market analysis to business feasibility projections.
A total of ten selected student groups presented their business concepts to the pentahelix panelists. One of the panelists, Chairman of the National Consumer Protection Agency (BPKN) of the Republic of Indonesia, Prof. M. Mufti Mubarok, highly appreciated the students' creativity, which he deemed highly potential for development to an industrial scale.
Prof. Mufti emphasized the importance of building a supportive ecosystem that bridges students' academic ideas with access to capital and the real sector, as has been successfully implemented in developed countries like China. The partnership pattern initiated by UMHT alongside the Pentahelix Center is expected to foster an entrepreneurial culture from an early stage and produce graduates ready to become drivers of national innovation.
