UNS – The Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, continues to monitor the 17 alumni who currently pursue further study in China. This was following the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCov) outbreak or also known as Wuhan coronavirus, China.
The Deputy Head of International Office UNS, Murni Ramli said that the 17 alumni UNS who currently studying in China is graduated from Diploma Program in Mandarin. “Thus, the 17 persons are not UNS students but UNS alumni,” Murni explained on Wednesday (29/01/2020).
Out of 17 alumni, 10 of them are pursuing further study at Xihua University, 5 alumni are studying at Jinan University, and 2 alumni at Huaqiao University.
“The 10 students at Xihua University are the graduates from Diploma Program in Mandarin Language, UNS, who receive undergraduate program scholarship from Xihua University. The scholarship program is one of the collaborations between Xihua University and UNS, which marked with the establishment and management of Confucius Institute (CI). The distribution of the scholarship is managed by the CI UNS. This scholarship program is not a double-degree program; thus, the status of the students is active students of Xihua University, but not a UNS student,” Murni added.
She also mentioned that 3 out of the 10 students of Xihua University are currently in Solo, while the 7 others are still in Xihua University.
Meanwhile, the PIC for the distribution of the Xihua University Scholarship, who is also the Director of the Confucius Institute (CI) UNS, Stephanie Phanata, B.Ed., M.TCSOL, has contacted Xihua University officer and the 7 students in Xihua University.
“They are not requesting to return home, in Indonesia, but delivering an appeal from Xihua University which proclaim that there is no decision on when the start of the semester will begin. Therefore, they were encouraged to went home,” Stephanie said.
Stephanie added that the policy regarding the students’ return is under the authority of the country or the central government, thus they need to wait to abide by the government policy. However, as the 17 are UNS alumni, thus UNS empathizes and continues to monitor their progress through the Director of CI UNS.
“From 17 UNS alumni, 10 students are studying for an undergraduate degree in Xihua University, which located in Chengdu. Five students are taking an undergraduate degree at Jinan University located in Guangzhou and they are safe. Two students are studying for an undergraduate degree at Huaqiao University located in Xiamen, who were also safe. The distance of the three cities from Wuhan are Chengdu and Xiamen is located more than 1000Km from Wuhan, while Guangzhou is 942 Km from Wuhan,” Stephanie said. Humas UNS
