As many as 176 heads of laboratory for basic laboratory, science laboratory and integrated laboratory at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) are inaugurated on Wednesday (13/1) at the Senate Hall. The new heads of laboratory are in charge of educational and research activities in the laboratory for the next three years.
“Laboratory is front liner of knowledge, not just for UGM but also Indonesia as well. Therefore, we need to keep improving the quality of our laboratories,” Rector of UGM, Prof. Ir. Dwikorita Karnawati, M.Sc., said in her speech.
Since last year, UGM through its Quality Assurance Office has audited 260 laboratories. Each laboratory was given scores according to few criteria, such as function and role to educational process, work productivity, effectivity, and facilities. Based on the assesment, some laboratories need to be combined to increase the effectivity, hence decreasing the number of laboratories to 176.
“Our 176 laboratories now are proper, adequate and important to support academic process,” Dwikorita added.
From the audit, according to Rector, lesson that can be taken is the importance of cooperation from many parties to improve the quality of human resources, from their educational background as well as their qualification to work at a laboratory. To support the quality improvement, one of efforts that has been taken is collaborating with Education Fund Institute (LPDP) to provide doctoral scholarship for UGM lecturers.
“We just received approval that at least 30 lecturers of UGM will be awarded doctoral scholarships. We will also provide incentives and grants for lecturers to do research abroad and produce scientific journals,” she explained.