Department of Arabic Language Education (PBA) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) firstly conducted an international field trip in Malaysia and Singapore on 5-10 December 2017. Department Head of PBA of UMY Talqis Nurdianto, Lc., M.A. informed that the field trip aimed to broaden students’ horizon.
“The field trip is carried out at partner universities of UMY, namely Univrsiti Sains Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), and Muhammadiyah Islamic College Singapore (MICS). Therefore, cooperation with these universities can intensively focus on the faculties that they provide,” told Talqis in an interview on Thursday (30/11).
The field trip was also to wide PBA students’ networking. “In Indonesia, there is an Arabic student association, but there has not been yet the association overseas. We are attempting to create a link among universities in Malaysia and Singapore,” declared Talqis.
“There are 130 departments of Arabic Language Education in Indonesia and 3 of them are in Yogyakarta. Each department possesses similarities so that in 22014 we decided to organize a field trip program to differentiate PBA of UMY from the others. The students joining the field trip are expected to have global understanding of the Arabic language,” added Talqis.
During the field trip, students presented their research in Arabic, had a dialog, and did non-formal activities to improve their Arabic language proficiency. “Students will get an additional point mentioned on their Diploma Supplement (Surat Keterangan Pendamping Ijazah) stating they have participated in the international field trip. Besides, there is also training dealing with the Arabic language such Arabic research methodology by a lecturer of USIM,” explained Talqis.
“Students departing for the field trip were batch 2014 or in the seventh semester. They did not pay more field trip fee since it has been included in their tuition fees. Since it was the first time to be conducted, we found several shortcomings to be improved such as administration,” said Talqis.
Moreover, he recommended that the field trip become an annual program of PBA of UMY. “It can be an additional value for this department and can attract prospective students to study. The field trip becomes an evaluation for PBA to enhance its performance and internal quality. Indeed, I wish that students can possess global knowledge because it will be one of the requirements to graduate. The students may have a field trip to other universities such as Suez Canal University in Egypt and Ez-Zitouna University in Tunisia. I hope that this program will be valuable when they aplly for job. Besides, I expect that the Arabic language can be an international medium of instruction, particularly for Muslims,” ended Talqis.
