UGM annually dispatches as many as 6,500 students to 34 provinces across Indonesia to do student community service programme (KKN). This is expected to help the central and regional government’s programme to alleviate poverty. Moreover, the KKN is done for three years in the same location to ensure the economic independence of the local people.
This was said by Rector of UGM, Prof. Ir. Panut Mulyono, M.Eng.,. D.Eng., when briefing over 300 supervising lecturers in The Sahid Rich Hotel Yogyakarta on Wednesday(28/3).
The Rector confirmed the KKN was aimed at driving the independence and increasing the welfare of society in a sustainable manner.
“Through the KKN, the students can also learn from society about local wisdom and good practise,” he said.
The KKN initiated by UGM since 1951, according to the Rector, has become the benchmark for other universities in terms of community service. Regional leaders also directly asked UGM to send its students to their regions. But due to limitations, UGM prioritises regions at the outermost islands and most isolated in the country.
The Rector further asked the lecturers to encourage that the projects they supervised would drive the economic growth of society and local industry.
Prof. Ir. Irfan Dwidya Prijambada, M.Eng., Ph.D., UGM Director of Community Service, said UGM would send 6,500 students again for the programme in regions from Aceh to Papua. According to Irfan, in each location, students would guide the local people for three year years consecutively. “The students will do the mapping of problems and potential, programme and target as well as implementation,” he said.
Prof. Dr. Gunawan Sumodiningrat, representing UGM Board of Professors, said the lecturers joining the programme was their calling to do community service along with the students. He hoped they could form good relations with the students.