KYIV, TEL-U –Telkom University won a fellowship from Ministry of Research and Higher Education under the Scheme of Academic Mobility and Exchange (SAME) for teaching Indonesian to Foreign Speakers (BIPA). One faculty staff from School of Computing, Florita Diana Sari, SS, MPd, was among the 19 awardees who have been assigned during the year of 2015/2016 to one of the top national universities, in partnership with Indonesian Embassy in 8 countries: Bulgaria, Poland, Marocco, Rusia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, India, and Thailand. Up to the third year of this G-to-G collaborative actions in BIPA, not less than 35 fellows were carefully selected from leading educational institutions nationwide. The number of selected fellows apparently will increase due to positive responses and growing interests toward BIPA worldwide, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.
SAME-BIPA Fellow from Telkom University was officially received in Embassy of Republic Indonesia in Kyiv on March 2, 2016. During the one-hour welcoming meeting, Madame Ambassador H.E Mrs. Niniek Kun Naryatie Siswojo discussed on the strategic role and growth in Bahasa Indonesia overseas particularly to strengthen national branding. “We often find Indonesia has a strong co-branding with Bali, but it is also strategic to have Indonesia be strongly branded with Bahasa Indonesia, rather than with similar Malay languages within the South-East Asia region,” Madame Ambassador further remarked. Her Excellency, also Tel-U shareholder as her daughter Amanda Eka Ratih Siswojo graduated cum-laude from Tel-U Visual Communication Design at the end of 2015, appreciated Tel-U as one leading private university that is currently strengthening its quality to be more globally recognized.
Upon opportunities for partnership between Tel-U and Ukrainian leading higher educations, the Embassy Councellor Mr. Norwin Anwar also mentioned that Ukraine and its higher educations are long known for their advancement in engineering fields particularly electrical, information technology, aviation, and their applications in defense. With the establishment of Indonesian Studies Reseach Center in Taras Schevchenko National University (TSNU) of Kiev since April 2015, the mobility and academic exchanges between Indonesian and Ukrainian higher educations are more to explore. Besides engineering and BIPA, some other fields that also attract increasing interests for student exchange or immersion programs are modern arts and visual design, as noted by Dr. Prabowo Himawan, the Director of Indonesian Studies Reseach Center in TSNU.
Fellow awardee from Tel-U, Florita Diana Sari has been assigned to TSNU for spring semester, starting 1 March until 30 June 2016. Since the very beginning of 3-month SAME-BIPA selection including desk evaluation, interview, microteaching, and pre-departure training, all candidates were informed that the accepted fellows cannot choose preferential country or university. “We were prepared to become academic ambassador for respectable Indonesian language, culture, and characters, wherever we are assigned to go,” she remarked. Taras Schevchenko National University itself is a classic and the leading contemporary academic and educational hub of Ukraine. It was founded in 1834, currently with 13 Faculties and 8 Institutes, also museums, observatory, publishing house, and memorial sites within the university. All students of TSNU and other state-owned higher educations received full scholarship from the government for their undergraduate study. Thus it is noticeable that TSNU has among the best selected young people from all Ukraine. (purel/icao)