UNS – Proud achievements have come from the Faculty of Law (FH) of Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta. Two lecturers from FH UNS, Rachma Indriyani, S.H., LL.M., Ph.D., and Dr. Erna Dyah Kusumawati S.H., M.Hum., LL.M., successfully passed the Sabbatical Leave program for 2024 and won an International Research Grant. This International Research Grant is funded by the British Council for 2024-2025, in collaboration with Aston University, United Kingdom.
Rachma Indriyani, S.H., LL.M., Ph.D., explained that Sabbatical Leave is a program to support lecturers in activities at the top 300 foreign campuses worldwide, including teaching and research collaboration. Initially, they contacted various potential campuses until finally receiving a Letter of Acceptance.
“The application process is done through email, contacting potential campuses to be the destination of the program. They respond, and there’s an online meeting for interviews related to the program. If the campus agrees, a Letter of Acceptance will be given,” Rachma explained.
Rachma also mentioned that they have prepared various things, such as administrative documents and research drafts, to be collaborated on.
“Of course, administrative documents such as visas, Approval Letters from the State Secretariat (SP Setneg), as well as the preparation of research drafts to be collaborated on. For the research topic, we will discuss marine conservation and maritime routes because it is in line with my expertise in maritime law,” Rachma explained to uns.ac.id, on Tuesday (23/4/2024).
Rachma hopes that by participating in this program, it can support UNS’s internationalization program. “So that networking with top world campuses can be created to support UNS’s internationalization program,” she said.
It is known that Rachma’s destination university in the Sabbatical Leave program for 2024 is the University of Hamburg, Germany, while Erna’s destination university is Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.
In addition, Rachma and Erna also won the International Research Grant in collaboration with Aston University, funded by the British Council. According to Erna, as the head of the research team, she obtained information about this International Research Grant from UNS’s Vice Rector for Planning, Cooperation, Business, and Information, Prof. Irwan Trinugroho, who provided information about the Going Global Partnership program issued by the British Council. Besides Erna and Rachma, there are other team members in this research program, namely Dewanti Cahyaningsih from the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Likha Sari Anggreni and Monika Sri Yuliarti from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP), as well as Professor Hannah Bartlett (Lead Applicant) and Claire Richard, as representatives from Aston University.
“UNS has good relations with several universities in the UK, one of which is Aston University, then the Vice Rector 4 initiated applying for this research competition program. Those of us interested in participating in this competition gathered to create a proposal with the theme of Gender Equality. The program supports universities to achieve higher education that is connected, equal, and inclusive,” Erna explained.
This research team chose the gender equality partnership theme with the title ‘Addressing Gender Gap Within Female University Graduates In Entering Industries: An Economic, Cultural, And Legal Approach‘.
“Many female university graduates face obstacles or difficulties in accessing industries, in this case, jobs. Or when they can access industries, it turns out that women’s participation in the workforce in Indonesia is lower than that of men. Despite the higher number of female students. This gap is what we want to investigate. After that, we will design training, be it leadership or gender equality for female university graduates so that they will be better prepared when entering industries with various challenges. That is the basic idea of our proposal,” she explained.
Erna also stated that they have prepared various things such as MoU forms. They are also preparing an application for research ethics approval (Research Ethics Application) because this is related to the confidentiality of the research subjects’ identities that must be considered by researchers. “We are still waiting to be approved by Aston and then we will proceed,” Erna said.
Finally, Erna hopes to be able to bring the name of UNS onto the international stage. “We are also encouraged to seek available international grants. Because, besides bringing the university’s name, we can also align ourselves as researchers at the international level. Teamwork is also very necessary. A solid team, produces a solid proposal. Hopefully, with the acceptance of the research, we female researchers at UNS can contribute to the future generation of women and also to UNS,” she concluded.
HUMAS UNS