Universitas Gadjah Mada participated in the SEARCA University Consortium (UC) Faculty Forum held at Los Banos, Philippines on July 23-25 2019.
The event was the first forum held by SEARCA and the University of the Philippines Los Banos as the host. This forum is a follow-up meeting of one of the points produced in the 31st SEARCA Executive Board Meeting which took place at UGM on November 13-14, 2018.
The activity was attended by around 90 people from various world universities which are SEARCA members. Raising the theme “Responding to the Challanges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution”, this activity became an arena for exchanging research ideas and building cooperation strategies for members of SEARCA University Consortium.
On that occasion, UGM as an active member of SEARCA sent 6 delegates, namely Dr. Hatma Suryatmojo, S.Hut, M.Sc (Head of the UGM Center for Innovation and Academic Studies), Bambang Suwignyo, S.Pt, M.P, Ph.D, IPM (Vice Dean for Research, Community Service and Cooperation at the Faculty of Animal Science UGM), Dr. Lestari Rahayu Waluyati (Faculty of Agriculture UGM), Dr. Ngadisih (Faculty of Agricultural Technology UGM), Muhammad Chisna Satriagasa (Faculty of Forestry UGM) and Heni Puji Astuti (PIKA staff).
Head of PIKA UGM, Dr. Hatma Suryatmojo, S.Hut, M.Sc., said that UGM as one of the founders of SEARCA continued to initiate new programs as a response to the current development and technology. Industrial Revolution 4.0 provides opportunities as well as challenges in various fields including education in the Agro-complex field.
According to him, academic innovation is the key to the sustainability of education in Agro-complex which must be synergized with research and community service programs.
“UGM has offered members of the SEARCA consortium to expand collaboration in various fields of Agro-complex science and encourage the birth of various new innovations,” he said in a written statement received on Wednesday (24/7).
He said that currently UGM also provides 25 quota of postgraduate program scholarships intended for students from ASEAN member countries. The next challenge, he said, is to make SEARCA a collaborative institution and develop existing programs from members of the SEARCA University Consortium to be adopted into the SEARCA program.
Meanwhile, Bambang Suwignyo, Ph.D., stated that this forum was important in an effort to increase the collaboration opportunities that is strengthening between the campus of the agro-scope complex of members of the SEARCA consortium. Not only that, it also expanded cooperation with SEARCA affiliated universities, namely from Japan and Taiwan. (Nadia)