UGM marks 54th birthday, pledges bright future<\/p>\n
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
The country's oldest university, the Gadjah Mada University,
\nturns 54 this year. On Dec. 20, the university will celebrate its
\nanniversary by handing out a host of new awards to students,
\nacademics and even non-academic staff members.<\/p>\n
Four new awards, for example, will be presented to researchers
\nat the university for the best intellectual property rights, best
\ninternational publication, best collaborative research, and best
\napplicable research.<\/p>\n
Awards will also be given to students for academic
\nachievement; lecturers who have shown an outstanding commitment
\nto community-service or the best educational achievement; and
\nother staff members for the best performance.<\/p>\n
Awards play an important role in the management of a
\nuniversity, they motivate students to increase their knowledge
\nand to enjoy healthy academic competition. Vice chairman of the
\nanniversary celebration committee Toni Atyanto Dharoko said that
\nonce a sense of competition was installed at the university,
\nbigger achievements for the institution as a whole would follow.<\/p>\n
The awards presentation, said Toni, was also in line with the
\ntheme of this year's anniversary celebrations: "Strengthening
\nBrotherhood and Appreciating Achievement."
\n"The theme is appropriate, especially in unifying the students so
\nthat the development of our academic culture at UGM is
\naccelerated," Toni said.<\/p>\n
For UGM, reaching 54 means two things: The university must
\nmaintain its status as the people's university, while, at the
\nsame time, moving toward becoming a prominent research university
\nof international repute.<\/p>\n
It was just three years ago that UGM became an autonomous
\ninstitute of education, along with three other prominent
\nuniversities in the country, after previously being state-run.<\/p>\n
Change was apparent at all levels of the university's
\nmanagement. Rather than simply providing educational, research,
\nand community-service activities, the university took up the
\nchallenge of making research the basis for such activities.
\nScientific research, accordingly, became applicable,
\ncollaborative, and multi-\/cross-disciplinary.<\/p>\n
"This certainly needed appropriate strategic and operational
\nsteps (to implement)," university rector Sofian Effendi said.<\/p>\n
Among the steps needed, he said, includes boosting the
\nresearch environment at the university. This would involve
\nimproving research facilities, establishing a rewards-awards
\nsystem for researchers, increasing research quality and
\nincreasing applicable, collaborative, and multi-disciplinary
\nresearch.<\/p>\n
However, such steps would certainly require a huge amount of
\nmoney to implement, said Sofian.<\/p>\n
For example, he said, to improve on-campus Internet access,
\nthe university must spend Rp 6 billion per year.<\/p>\n
Sofian however, is optimistic that with its new status as an
\nautonomous university, UGM will make its way into the top ten
\nAsian universities by 2020.<\/p>\n
Established on Dec. 19, 1949, with only six faculties, UGM
\ncurrently has 18 faculties and various post-graduate programs.<\/p>\n
Some 6,000 new students are selected annually out of the tens
\nof thousands of high-school graduates who attend UGM's entrance
\ntest.<\/p>\n
Up until August 2003, 134,219 students had graduated from UGM,
\nconsisting of those who graduated from diploma programs (17,358),
\nunder-graduate programs (94,923), post-graduate programs
\n(21,406), and doctorate programs (532).<\/p>\n
With 2,262 lecturers and nearly 60,000 students in various
\nprograms and fields of study, what can the nation say but:<\/p>\n
Happy birthday!<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ugm-marks-54th-birthday-pledges-bright-future-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }