Faculty of Cultural Sciences of Universitas Gadjah Mada celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. Established on 3 March 1946 under the name ot Faculteit Sastra, Filsafat, dan Keboedajaan, it has changed names for five times until the current name started to be used in 2001. During these years the faculty has the mandate on education while developments are made to keep in pace with cultural dynamics and changes in society.
"This faculty has seen regeneration of scientists, making journey of cultural sciences that are very dynamic, adapting to the changing society,” said Dr. Daud Aris Tanudirjo, M.A., when delivering scientific remarks during an open Senate meeting for the series of events to celebrate the anniversaryon Thursday (3/3) in the Purbacaraka Auditorium.
He delivered the cultural reflection from postmodernism to pseudoscience by concentrating on cultural elements related to activities at higher learning institutions. “Working in science cannot separate itself from the socio-cultural condition of the people,” he said.
Faculty Dean, Dr. Pujo Semedi Hargo Yuwono, M.A., presented a report on the work of the faculty since 2015. He said the faculty had made progresses in academic, curriculum, research, human resource quality, and facilities and infrastructure,
Pujo said to keep improving their performance, developments will be made in the near future. On curriculum, courses in study programmes are planned to be reduced to encourage students to explore their academic experience by visiting other study programmes and faculties.
“Increasing curriculum efficiency will also mean reducing the burden of lecturers down to the ideal level in line with the university minimum threshold. As such, lecturers will have more time for research and writing,” he said.
He also highlighted the importance to teach social skills to students, such as polite manners, cooperativeness, ability to accomodate different views, intelligence, priority on public interest than personal or group’s interest. These are important as they are one of the keys to succeed in their job and career. He then encouraged lecturers to spend their time to interact with the students.
“They are all our students, becoming our mandate. If we see them behave not appropriately, we need to ask them and warn them to improve. After they graduated, hopefully they don’t become people who are academically smart and politically knowledgeable, but have bad manners,” he added.