UNS — The Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka Program (MBKM) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek), in collaboration with Indonesia Endowment Funds for Education (LPDP), opened an opportunity for students to take a course in the global university through the Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) Program. This program was held for the first time in 2021 and collaborated with 73 universities in 31 countries, including universities in the Top 300 QS University Ranking.
IISMA Program is opened for students at the undergraduate level at the 4th to 7th semester in the universities at Ditjen Dikti Kemendikbud, including Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta. In the 1st Batch of IISMA, three UNS students were selected to participate in an exchange program to the Palacky University Olomouc, Czech, for 16 weeks. These students are Elys Putri Karismawati, Muliawan Prasetya Utama, and Zahira Fala Yusuf, all from the English Language Education Program Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP) UNS.
To uns.ac.id team, Elys Putri shared the reasons she and her other two friends selected Palacky University Olomouc for their one-semester exchange program target. She stated that it is her long dream to be a scholar learning in European universities, besides the program offered by Palacky University Olomouc. “Although I take several courses that I had never learned before, such as European History,” Elys said (24/11/2021).
To achieve her dream, Elys went through the IISMA selection process that started with administrative requirements including Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3.0 (minimum), recommendation letter from campus, and English proficiency test result (IELTS 6.0, TOEFL ITP 550, TOEFL IBT 78, Duolingo 100). The administrative selection was followed by the essay writing assessment and interview session, which all she passed well.
“It was a mixed feeling, surprised, did not expect, and grateful to be a part of IISMA batch 1. The process was quite struggling, in my opinion, and quite long. After the announcement that I was accepted, I was glad. My struggle during the selection process brought a result,” Elys described her feeling upon the announcement.
During their now two-month stay in the Czech, Elys said that there was no difficulty in adaptation, although she experienced culture shock due to the weather, foods, and the culture at first. She enjoys the life in Czech that is eased by technology and application development that allows them to pay for almost all life activities using an application. In terms of transportation, the cost is low, and most people walk to reach their destination. Their stay is also made easier by the program in the Department of Asian Studies that study Indonesian’s culture and invited them as native speaker guest in Bahasa Indonesia class.
“The is a special program that studies the Indonesian language and culture. So, when we arrived here, we were welcomed warmly by the local students in that department. They could speak Indonesia and are very friendly,” Elys said.
Elys also stated that a warm welcome was also observed from the local people and that people should not be worried about racism. “The local people are used to differences. Never once did I feel intimidated here,” she said. In the university, she also met with international students who are mostly the awardees of the Erasmus+ program. Thus, the IISMA program provides not only the opportunity to learn at the academic courses but also the experience to build networking with diverse international students that grow tolerance on cultural, race, ethnicity, language, and religious diversity.
“Do not be reluctant to apply, my fellow. This program is fully funded for one semester and recognized as 20 credits at home university,” Elys said.
The registration for Batch 2 is opened in November 2021 with detailed information in kampusmerdeka.kemdikbud.go.id and @iisma_ri Instagram account. Humas UNS
Reporter: Alinda Hardiantoro
Editor: Dwi Hastuti