UNAIR NEWS – Universitas Airlangga Alumni Association (IKA UNAIR) in Africa held an IKA UNAIR gathering on Saturday, November 28 (28/11/2020) for UNAIR’s 66th Anniversary. This activity was carried out online using Zoom and attended by several UNAIR officials.
Among the officials were Prof. Ni Nyoman Tri Puspaningsih, M.Si as Vice Rector for Academic, Student and Alumni Affairs, Dr. Pinky Saptandari Endang P, Dra., MA as Head of Center for African Studies FISIP UNAIR, and Dr. Akmal Boedianto, S.H., M.Si as Chairman of IKA UNAIR Central.
In the gathering, Akmal hopes that a forum for UNAIR alumni in Africa can be established soon. Akmal explained that all UNAIR alumni around the world need to be consolidated, accommodated so information, activities, and work of all alumni can be properly monitored by UNAIR.
“I also hope that fellow alumni can become spokespersons for UNAIR and Indonesia, of course,” said Akmal.
Furthermore, Pinky explained that the gathering event was important to strengthen cooperation between Indonesia and countries in Africa. In this regard, the Center for African Studies FISIP UNAIR is ready to support, collaborate and follow up on education and research activities with universities and other institutions in Africa.
“All of them are ready to collaborate and work together to create a better Indonesia-Africa cooperation,” said Pinky.
Meanwhile, Fatou Bintou, a Faculty of Humanities alumnus graduated in 2016 as a representative of IKA UNAIR from Africa said that her experience while studying at UNAIR was very useful for her career as a translator and assistant to embassies in Africa. Fatou also conveyed suggestions related to the promotion of educational scholarships from Indonesia in Africa by teaching Indonesian language and Indonesian culture at African universities.
“We as UNAIR alumni in Africa are ready to become agents (ambassadors, ed) in the education sector in Africa,” said the alumni from Senegal.
Prof. Nyoman agree to this idea and said that education promotion is very important, especially the promotion of UNAIR education programs. Introducing Indonesia to several universities in Africa is very important and UNAIR alumni in Africa can become UNAIR ambassadors there. The Indonesian language learning program has been done by UNAIR through lingua program conducted online.
“Alumni can help provide Indonesian language learning through the online lingua program while helping promoting UNAIR,” explained Prof. Nyoman.
Prof. Nyoman also explained that UNAIR as a smart university plays a role in various SDGs programs, including in various cooperative activities between Indonesia-African countries. Prof. Nyoman hopes that the alumni can become UNAIR ambassadors to realize the goal, being a smart university.
Author: Galuh Mega Kurnia
Editor : Binti Q. Masruroh
