Rector of Universitas Gadjah Mada, Prof. Ir. Dwikorita Karnawati, M.Sc., Ph.D., confirms that UGM uphold academic freedom throughout the UGM academic community as well as keeping it decent and and ethical. According to the Rector as an academic, instinct of freedom and truth needs to be sharpened to be responsive to the surroundings, locally, nationally, and globally in order not to get caught up in its arrogance.
"Lecturer in carrying out Three Pillars of Tertiary Education and the right to academic freedom should always uphold the norms, decency and ethics," Dwikorita said, Thursday (9/6).
She added that the paradigm of academics who looked at their surroundings as "objects" of study needs to be overhauled to extend its perspective not only from the viewpoint of academics/researchers. This has encouraged UGM to commit on educating grounded human resources.
Rector said that the year of 2016 has been proclaimed as the Year of Development of human resources. To support the objective, there has been many programs to revamp system of management and human resources development at UGM, to meet superior standards in academic development.
The declaration confirms UGM’s commitment to strengthen moral and ethical movement that opposes academic harassment, abuse of power and sexual harassment.
"The position of UGM is clearly against academic harassment, abuse of power and sexual harassment," she explained.
Moral and ethical movement has also been arranged through UGM Lecturer Ethical Code as set out in the Rector's decree No. 246 /P/SK/HT 2004. In the article 10, it is stated that a teacher must stay away from and avoid things or acts that can demote lecturer’s dignity as respectable educators profession. Moreover, in the aforementioned article is also stated that a lecturer should stay away from and avoid the things that lead to possible conflicts of personal interest in the teaching-learning process.
Similarly, the Chairman of the Professor Board, Prof. Dr. Ir. Sunjoto, Dip.HE, DEA., said that UGM will always keep its identity in ethical scientific stage. The Board together with the Academic Senate and the Executive Board are currently drafting detailed concepts and policy to avoid harassment and sexual violence among faculty, staff, and students.
"UGM forbids harassment and sexual violence. We also have the Council of Honor who is ready to deal with and impose sanctions if they occur and involve UGM academic community," explained Sunjoto.
He asserted that the Board will continue to make efforts to develop the academic culture that is conducive and dynamic for the University community based on the philosophy, principles, and basic values of the Universitas Gadjah Mada.