UNS — The Rector of Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, Prof. Dr. Jamal Wiwoho, officially sends UNS students as the Indonesian Internasional Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) awardees. The valediction ceremony was held online through the Zoom Cloud Meeting on Tuesday (24/8/2021). Twenty-two UNS students who received IISMA grants and will depart to 16 global universities attended the ceremony.
IISMA is a part of Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek). The first-time launched program allows undergraduate program (S1) students to study in the global university for a semester and will be recognized by the target university as a 20 credit semester (SKS) course. In this first batch, the program managed by the Directorate General of Higher Education (Dirjen Dikti) sends 970 students from all over Indonesia. UNS sends 22 students in this prestigious program.
The Rector of UNS, Prof. Jamal Wiwoho, said that he is proud and delighted with the achievement of the IISMA awardees. The Rector also stated that the awardees are UNS and the nation ambassadors who need to be excellent representatives for Indonesia abroad.
“You are great students. Out of millions of university students in Indonesia, only 970 students are accepted, and all of you twenty-two students are included in those accepted in IISMA. I greatly hope that you could act well, be friendly, respectful, and follow the regulation there (target country). You must be UNS and Indonesia ambassadors. Learn well, but don’t stop at the academic field,” Prof. Jamal stated.
The IISMA awardees from UNS will depart to 16 universities in 11 target countries, including five students to the UK, two students to Italy, three students to Hungary, three students to the Czech Republic, two students to Russia, one student to Spain, one student to Japan, one student to Turkey, one student to the UAE, one student to Latvia, and two students to Malaysia. These students will depart to their target countries this semester for European countries and next semester for Asian countries. The departure difference does not affect student’s excitement in participating in the program.
Priscilla Inez Gerard, an IISMA awardee from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science (FMIPA), stated that she is very grateful for the supervision from UNS from the beginning of the selection. She hopes that the supervision will continue during their study in the target university until they return to Solo.
“Representing IISMA awardees, I thank the university because from the beginning of the selection, we are fully supervised. We kindly ask for your prayer and guidance for the next semester. We might be kilometers away from Solo, but we hope for a guide until we come back to Solo,” the student who will study in RUDN, Russia, stated.
Nabila Rania Dewi delivered a similar message, an IISMA awardee who will study in Japan thanked the university for the assistance. Even though she will depart next semester, her spirit to study was visible throughout the ceremony.
“Thank you to UNS for assisting us from the beginning until now. I was born, grow up, and live in Solo. Therefore, this is my first experience of staying outside Solo. Like dreams come true for me. I am very enthusiastic, but because my target country is an Asian country, I need to defer next month while preparing for my study later,” the Management Program student said. Humas UNS
Reporter: Ida Fitriyah
Editor: Dwi Hastuti