SDGs 4: Quality Education | SDGs 17: Partnerships for the Goals

On Tuesday, January 20, 2024, the Faculty of Cultural Sciences held the first meeting with students who are currently enrolled in the Faculty of Cultural Sciences through the Pertukaran Mahasiswa Merdeka (PMM) Program. The meeting was attended by the Vice Dean for Academic and Student Affairs of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Dr. Nur Saktiningrum, M.Hum, along with 17 students from various universities in Indonesia and 5 international students from Italy, Japan, and Korea.

Dr. Nur Saktiningrum, M.Hum congratulated the students who were accepted into the Faculty of Cultural Sciences. Additionally, she provided a brief overview of life at FIB UGM and in Yogyakarta. She suggested the students to explore various aspects of life at UGM and in Yogyakarta, both academically and non-academically, in hope that it would give them new experiences.

The activity continued with guidance on filling out the Kartu Rencana Studi (KRS) / study plan by the Unit of Academic and Student Affairs. They conveyed information about campus regulations that the students should be aware of and provided an overview of various courses that they could take. During this agenda, their enthusiasm for studying at this faculty was evident, with some expressing interest in taking courses such as Indonesian Cultural Practices, particularly Traditional Dance.

In essence, the PMM program aims to provide students with a different learning experience, offering them the opportunity to experience teaching and learning activities at other universities. Additionally, they gain the experience of building relationships with students and professors at FIB UGM, with the hope of opening up possibilities for future collaboration and cooperation.

SDGs 4: Quality Education

Wednesday, February 21, 2024, marked an unforgettable day for 140 graduates of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), where they proudly received their new titles as Bachelor’s degree. The event was attended by the Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Prof. Dr. Setiadi, S.Sos., M.Si, the Vice Dean for Finance, Assets, and Human Resources, Suray Agung Nugroho, S.S., M.A., Ph.D., and representatives from each department and study program within the Faculty of Cultural Sciences.

In this graduation period, Mutiara Cantikan, a student of the Cultural Anthropology Study Program, achieved the highest GPA of 3.99, followed by Garin Arivian Muhammad with a GPA of 3.96 from the Arabic Literature Study Program.

The event began with a welcoming speech from Prof. Dr. Setiadi, S.Sos, M.Si. He also gave some advice on the importance of considering the past as a source of learning and emphasized the need to look forward. The first step, he mentioned, is to finish the things in front of us. This graduation ceremony signifies the success from the efforts in the previous years. The program continued with an entertaining performance of the Būchaechum dance by students from the Korean Language and Culture Study Program, who are part of the Dōngari Student Activity Unit. The ceremony was closed with a prayer led by Hamdan, S.S., M.A.

Congratulations to all the graduates! A bright future awaits you!

SDG 4: Quality Education | SDGs 4: Education for sustainability | SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure | SDGs 9: Economic development | SDG 10: Reduced inequalities | SDGs 10: Business | SDG 17: Partnerships for goals | SDGs 17: Fostering innovation

All prospective graduates will definitely feel happy and relieved because they have completed the difficult tasks they undertook during college, especially their thesis. However, they will face the next struggle after graduating from college. They will start a new life which of course will have increasingly difficult and numerous challenges. The reality of life that does not always match what they want requires fresh graduates to really prepare themselves by planning what they will do after graduating. Realizing the anxiety felt by prospective alumni, the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Gadjah Mada University held soft skills training for prospective graduates the day before graduation day to prepare human resources who are ready to face the world outside campus.

Tania Nugraheni Ayuningtyas, is a successful young entrepreneur who graduated from the Tourism study program at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences who is currently continuing her postgraduate studies at the Agribusiness Management study program at Gadjah Mada University with an LPDP scholarship. The twists and turns of her journey in achieving success can be a motivation and lesson for anyone who just wants to start a business, this is what makes her worthy of being a speaker at this training in front of undergraduate graduate candidate which will be held on Tuesday, February 20 2024 at the Faculty of CulturalScience Auditorium, Gadjah Mada University. Before finally she succeeded as owner & director of CV. Slamet Jogjamu Indonesia and also Co-Founder & Finance Manager of PT. Waturanda Destination, she experienced failure and even fraud. But that didn’t make her give up, in fact these incidents encouraged her to continue learning and thinking to be better.

That afternoon, she shared her valuable knowledge about how to start a business. According to her, there are three important things that must be done, namely Learn, Build and Measure. Learn, namely gathering understanding about the target market, customers and problems that need to be solved, as well as creating hypotheses to test on the market. Build is building a product or service simply and quickly. And the last thing that entrepreneurs rarely remember but is very important is Measure, which is actively collecting data and feedback from users so that it is possible to measure product performance. With the knowledge she shared, she hoped that prospective graduates will be ready to face the new world after graduating and can plan carefully for the future.

SDG 4: Quality education | SDGs 4: Education | SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth | SDGs 8: Culture | SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities | SDGs 11: Adaptable | SDG 16: Peace, justice, and strong institutions | SDGs 16: Education | SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals | SDGs 17: Fostering Innovation

The title of this Public Lecture succeeded in attracting the attention of students from the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Gadjah Mada University who were interested in concentrating on translation to attend the Multimedia Room on the 2nd floor of the Margono Building on Tuesday 20th of February 2024. Students from various levels and classes as well as lecturers filled the room from 9 am to gain new knowledge about translation from extraordinary sources in their field. The resource person is the Head of Pacific and Asian Students from the University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada). Before presenting his material, he expressed his deepest gratitude to the Faculty of Cultural Sciences for supporting his research and to the students who were willing to take the time to attend the general lecture.

The material opened by explaining the meaning of translation so that public lecture participants knew the basic knowledge first before discussing translation and its problems in more depth. The use of differentiation in each concept of religion and atma was one of the problems in translation where there might be a language transformation adapted from the old concept to the new constitution. On the issue of religion and atma, there were a number of terms and other languages that were trapped in language transformation efforts. The presenter delivered the material in a way that was easy to understand, namely by relating it to examples found in everyday life based on the presenter’s personal experience. From the presentation given, he concluded that the use of linguistics, especially in the field of translation, could not be separated from concepts in everyday life.

Prof. Dr. Faruk HT., moderator at this public lecture, closed by providing a simpler conclusion that there were three important points that could be noted. First, translation as a crossing of meaning. This does not only apply to interlanguage translations but also between languages, for example between one group and another. Second, the concept of metaphor is conveying something with another meaning. This meaning can also be reversed, that is, conveying the meaning with a different name or sign. Third, meaning is a fluid process that can change from one place to another, from one case to another, such as in the case of religion and atma. Finally, the question and answer session was led by a different moderator, namely Dr. Arsanti Wulandari, M. Hum.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals | SDGs 17: Global partnership | SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institution | SDGs 16: Conflict resolution | SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities | SDGs 11: Community

On Tuesday, February 13th 2024 at 1 until 3 pm, the UGM Japanese Language and Culture Study Program held a public lecture on the topic “Will Japan become a ‘normal country’?: Changes in the Defense Debate Before and After the Outbreak of The Ukraine War ” which was delivered by researchers and teaching staff at the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies from Kobe University, (Ass. Prof.) Masato Nakahara. This Public Lecture was the opening for the 2023/2024 even semester lecture activities which were attended by lecturers and students of the Japanese Language and Culture Study Program, as well as students from outside the study program who were interested in Japanese issues.

In the first part, Nakahara-sensei explained the history of the formation of the Jieitai (Japanese Self-Defense Forces) after Japan’s defeat in World War II and changed in the position of the Jieitai during the Allied occupation as regulated in the Showa Constitution which was in effect to this day. The restrictions on Jieitai activities regulated in the Showa Constitution meant that Japan’s military activities were very limited, including when there was a war outside Japan, such as Russia’s war with Ukraine, which is still ongoing today. Japan’s position in relation to security and world peace is a dilemma because sending war troops abroad violates the mandate of the Shouwa Constitution, while on the other hand the international world wants Japan to play an active role in sending war troops. Especially in the current era where changes in the global political constellation after the Cold War are increasingly dynamic and real, Japan, which is required to always prioritize peace as mandated by the Shouwa Constitution (Heiwa Kenpou), needs to look for new interpretations so that it can become a ‘normal’ country, namely a country that on the one hand can maintain sovereignty, and on the other hand can play a role in world peace. After the presentation session by Nakahara-sensei, the public lecture continued with a discussion and question and answer session which was very dynamic and filled with various questions from the public lecture participants regarding Japan’s attitude and position in relation to international conflicts, geopolitical changes in East Asia and Indonesia.

Understanding the position of Japan in the context of global change is considered important for the study program’s academic community because apart from being a means of updating information related to current issues regarding the country of Japan, it is also a means of learning and inspiration for research themes concerning Japanese issues. More than that, through forums like this, cooperation between study programs and foreign institutions can be further enhanced and can become a means for study programs to facilitate their academic community to be able to move more globally, in accordance with one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), namely developing global partnerships for development.