Islamic Communication and Broadcasting (KPI) of Islamic Faculty (FAI) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) successfully maintained its ‘A’ accreditation in January 2016. It was due to the roles and the tight relationship between the students and lecturers.
In KPI Day on Wednesday (24/2) behind parking area of graduate school of UMY, Head of KPI, Fathurrahman Kamal, Lc., M.Si. stated that the students were engages in preparing for the accreditation visitation in November 2015. “I am proud of the students since they assisted this department to prepare the visitation. They also stayed up late to prepare it. Thus, this event is organized to tighten the relationship between the students and lecturers,” Fathurrahman told.
The KPI Day involved KPI lecturers and students of batch 2013, 2014, and 2015. It brought a theme ‘By KPI Day, Create Creativity and Togetherness’. The event aimed at strengthening the relationship between lecturers and students to acquaint values and characteristics of KPI to the students.
“As UMY’s tagline, ‘Unggul dan Islami’, the event is a way to introduce characteristics of KPI, namely being knowledgeable, civilized, and valuable. The students are expected to be intelligent in Islamic broadcasting and journalism. They may become bright students so that they can confront reality and various complex future challenges,” he wished.
They are also expected to have good morals that they can be role models for others. “And, wherever they are, they possess virtues which benefit other people,” he conveyed.
The event objectives were to create the three characters in students’ personality, to refresh students’ mind, and to cultivate students’ and lecturers’ relationship. “This is the second KPI Day, and it will be conducted again in the next semester. This event is also to commemorate the accreditation,” he mentioned.
One of the schedules of the KPI Day was Master Chef Competition for the students. The competition provided an occasion for students to train their social, spiritual, and emphatic intelligence, particularly on how to work in a team. “The main purpose is not to compete one another, but it is to enhance their soft skills,” he said.
Fathurahhman informed that there are several actions to take to maintain the ‘A’ accreditation which has been achieved for three times. The foremost action is escalating services, reconstructing the curriculum with KPT (Higher Education Curriculum) for five years, internationalizing the department, and establishing Master of Islamic Communication and Broadcasting. “To reconstruct the KPT, there would be two specifications of KPI, namely ‘Broadcasting and Journalism’ as well as ‘Islamic Communication and Counseling’. Broadcasting and Journalism students will not take a course of Psychology, and Islamic Communication and Counseling students will not take a course of Broadcasting except Basic Course (MKDU). Dealing with the internationalization, Insya Allah it will begin in the next semester, and KPI will utilize the building located in the south of University Residence which is an aid from the United Arab Emirates cooperating with UMY and Asia Muslim Charity Foundation (AMCF). The building will be used for international program which the medium instruction is Arabic. Regarding the master programs, it will be established in 2017,” he explained.
Additionally, in the KPI Day, there was logo launching of Islamic Communication and Counseling students. Tulus Rega, chief of KPI student association as well as the logo designer, stated that the logo will be employed for a student attribute, internal activities of KPI, and the other non-formal activities.
