Expanding cooperation with foreign institutions and acquainting students to foreign government, International Program of International Relations (IPIREL) and International Class of Governmental Studies (IGOV) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) had a field trip to Germany. Joining the field trip were seven lecturers of International Relations and three students of IPIREL and three students of IGOV.
In an interview on Saturday (23/5) at Public Relation office of UMY, chief of the field trip as well as Director of IPIREL Dian Azmawati, S.IP., M.A. told that it was on 25 April to 5 May 2015 and aimed at not only looking for cooperation occasions but also learning diversity in Germany. Dian contended that Germany is now promoting diversity to the citizens. “The main purpose of this field trip was introducing and studying diversity in Germany. We learnt how German views the diversity from perspectives of the government, political party activists, and academicians,” she stated.
She inserted that they had discussion session with lecturers as well as students of Christian-Albrechts-Universi Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Schleswig–Holstein, Germany. “We attended an academic workshop of diversity. After the workshop and discussion, we agreed to publish a book of diversity. Nevertheless, the contents of the book would be from literatures, researches, and papers of students and lecturers. The publication would be carried out with Christian-Albrechts-Universi Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel,” she conveyed.
Moreover, the field trip group visited German parliament and Indonesian embassy. However, they could not have discussion with them. They only joined and see meeting sessions in the parliament.
In fact, the field trip program to Europe was initiated by Prof. Dr. Christoph Behrens, Director of Center for Good Governance (CGG) of Indonesia. The program was conducted for the first time by IPIREL and IGOV of UMY since those two departments were accustomed to undertaking a field trip to Asian Countries. “Two years ago, we sent students of IPIREL for a community service (KKN) to Malaysia and Thailand. Joining the international KKN were nine students and four lecturers. We reinforced the cooperation with Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Thammasat University Thailand, and Khon Kaen University Thailand,” she added.
Dian expected that the field trip to Germany and foreign cooperation held by UMY, particularly IPIREL and IGOV, could be elevated. Additionally, she wished that UMY could cooperate with universities in Germany.
