Tagline of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY), Young and Global, is well known. It is supported by the students who always exist in international academic and nonacademic fields. UMY sent 67 students for student exchange this year. The student exchange was not easily to conduct since there were a lot of aspects to prepare moreover the number of students elevated. “Thus, we have to prepare them by providing a lot of information of how to live there. It is essential because a different county has different culture. Besides, finding halal food might be hard for them as Muslims,” conveyed Indira Peabasari, Ph.D. in an interview in Cooperation Bureau of UMY in Saturday (27/6). The coaching is organizes in Monday (29/6).
Indira stated that the student exchange is an advanced study program for UMY’s student to explore themselves in the other country. The destination countries are Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, and Spain.The 67 students will be provided knowledge of how to adapt in new environment and how to be better when they back to their home country. The coaching will be held on Saturday at 2.30 pm at Meeting hall of Pasca Sarjana building, floor 4, UMY. It will be presented by several lecturers or alumni who pursued their study in the countries. “For instance, Mrs. Twediana Budi Hapsari, S,Sos., M.Si., will share her experience during her study in Australia. The coaching aims at providing information dealing with dos and don’ts during their study in each country,” she informed.
She continued, “The information is dealing with not only halal food but also the culture. It is significant since culture of each country is distinct. Several norms should be obeyed. For example, it is regarding stuffs. In Australia it is prohibited to bring meat products like abon or dendeng. If they break the rules, it will cause troubles. In fact, the students will not get difficulty to find halal food,” she stated.
To ease the participants, they will be guided by several students who had student exchange in the countries. “Each gsuide will share their knowledge of ‘Menjadi Pribadi yang Mampu Beradaptasi di Luar Negeri’ (How to Adapt Living Overseas). The guides are Idham Badruzaman for Spain, Yuliani Iriana Sitompul for Korea, Fahrizal Ramadhan for China, Gesta Fauzia Nurbiansyah for Malaysia, Reza Rezeki for Thailand, Merrisa Dwi Joanita for the Philippines, and Ahmad Jawwad for Australia. The guides will informally assist them before their departure,” she informed.
In addition, Indira asserted that each program has different destination country and different time. Their departure is also in different time. Each country has its own qualification to accept student exchange on the university. The student exchange schedule is based on MoU between UMY and the universities. “The MoU is also dealing the provided fund since the student exchange is not fully funded. The provided fund is regarding accommodation and activity program during their study,” she informed.
Each university has distinct study program and duration. “The departure will be from July to the end of 2015. The nearest departure is student exchange to Sun Moon University for 6 weeks, 5 July 2015 – 20 August 2015. Besides, for the other universities, the students will depart in August,” she ended.
