Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) establishes cooperation with the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), Thailand. The form of cooperation is implemented with the signing of an MOU between both institutions. The signing was conducted by the Rector of UGM, Prof. Ir. Sudjarwadi, M. Eng, Ph.D, and President of NIDA, Prof. Dr. Sombat Thamrongthanyawong. In addtition, the MOU was also signed by the Dean of Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Prof.Dr. Pratikno, M. Soc. Sc, with the Dean of the Graduate School of Public Administration, NIDA, Tippawan Lorsuwannarat.
According to the Head of Office of International Affairs UGM, Dr. Rachmat Sriwijaya, UGM cooperation with NIDA had been pioneered before by the Department of Public Administration. "The background of this cooperation had been initiated long before by our Department of Public Administration," said Rachmat on the sidelines of the MOU signing on Monday (19/7) in UGM Leaders Meeting Room.
Rachmat said that all this time Nida was known as the best university of Thailand in the field of state administration. The forms of cooperation for the early stage comprised the university, Faculty and Program levels, especially for exchange students. "The initial phase was only to implement the cooperation of exchange student. But in the future we can develop, for example, business economy or IT," he said. Meanwhile in his speech, Rector of UGM, Prof Ir Sudjarwadi, M. Eng, Ph.D, welcomed the cooperation. This cooperation is expected to improve further the quality of graduates of both universities. "With this cooperation, we certainly hope that the quality of the two universities would continue to rise. In addition, our bargaining position will also increase both in ASEAN and international scopes," Sudjarwadi hoped.
Similarly, Prof. Dr. Sombat Thamrongthanyawong said NIDA have good teaching-learning facility and qualified lecturers. In this occasion, Sombat also invited the UGM Rector to visit NIDAin person. "For that reason, we gladly invite the Rector to be able to visit NIDA to further deepen the cooperation," said Sombat. Attending the event were several UGM State Administration Department lecturers, namely Dr. Ambar Widaningrum, Dr Agus Pramusinto, Dr Wahyudi Kumorotomo, MPP, and Dr. Agus Heruanto Hadna.