Through an online meeting on Wednesday, January 17, 2024, the UGM French Language and Literature study program held a briefing for third-year students, namely 2021 students who will take part in the MBKM (Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka) program. This briefing is related to preparing activities that can be followed as a substitute for even semester lectures in the 2023/2024 academic year. This is done to achieve the goals of the curriculum under the two themes of SDG 4, Quality Education, and SDG 17 Partnerships to Achieve Goals.

In this online meeting, students are given information regarding what internal or external activities can be chosen and then can be converted as a value for this even semester lecture. The MBKM activities offered by the study program include internship programs and independent projects in collaboration with several study program partners, faculties, and universities with a cooperation agreement.  Internship activities that students can carry out include ARTraduction translation agency, Institut Français d’Indonésie and Alliance Française throughout Indonesia, publishing agencies such as Mojok Publisher, as well as museums in Yogyakarta and Central Java such as Ullen Sentalu Museum, Radya Pustaka Solo Museum, Kraton Yogyakarta Museum, Tumurun Solo Museum, etc. For independent projects, there are film translation projects in collaboration with IFI Yogyakarta and film centers in France, and French language learning assistance projects in schools in Yogyakarta and surrounding areas.

In addition to programs initiated by the study program, students can also carry out MBKM activities funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture in the form of the Diktiristek Flagship program. Several students have been accepted into the program, including the program Kampus Mengajar at SMKS Piri Sleman as teacher partners, social media editorial internships at Kompas Gramedia Jakarta, internships in statistical cooperation positions at the Directorate General of Higher Education Jakarta, internships in the retail merchandising division at PT AEON Indonesia, independent study activities including mentoring and studying the establishment of digital start-ups with the Ministry of Communication and Information’s 100 Digital Startup Movement, and internships for French translation assistants at the DPR RI Secretariat General.

On January 26th, 2024, the Faculty of Cultural Sciences of Universitas Gadjah Mada attended the Employee Training Needs Workshop 2024, which was held from 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM WIB (GMT+7) in Multimedia Room 1, KPTU UGM, 3rd Floor, North Wing. The event was organized by the Universitas Gadjah Mada Directorate of Human Resources, in order to receive feedback and evaluation of training conducted by the UGM Directorate of Human Resources and to identify training needs that need to be held to achieve organizational goals. The workshop invited a number of academic staff, faculty, and university staff, and had previously requested feedback from invited representatives to provide comprehensive and structured materials and discussion topics. The feedback needed was in the form of employee competency points that need to be improved and training needs that need to be held during 2024.

The series of activities of the Employee Training Needs Workshop 2024 is a realization of the SDG 4 point, Quality Education, and SDG 8 point, Decent Work and Economic Growth. This realization is carried out in improving the quality of employees and staff of Universitas Gadjah Mada for better education. This is followed by the creation of a healthy work environment and helping employees and staff to contribute to the improvement of human resource quality.

The Japan Foundation is a non-profit institution owned by the Japanese government which is specifically dedicated to international cultural exchange activities. This institution seeks to create various activities and provide facilities and information so that individuals can interact with each other with the aim of deepening mutual understanding between Japanese society and other countries through arts and cultural exchange activities, education and learning Japanese in abroad, and Japanese studies abroad, and also collect the material and then distribute it. Even though it is based in Tokyo, The Japan Foundation already has 24 branch offices spread throughout the world. One of them is in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Japan Foundation Jakarta is tasked with carrying out activities initiated by the head office, contributing to Japanese and Indonesian cultural exchange activities, supporting and collaborating with external organizations, conducting research, and providing information related to all cultural exchange activities carried out by The Japan Foundation.

In order to provide support and strengthen collaboration, the Japan Foundation (JF) Jakarta visited the Japanese Language and Culture Study Program, Gadjah Mada University on Friday 26th of January 2024 at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences. The visit from the Japan Foundation (JF) Jakarta was represented by Deputy Mr. Yamazaki Takaya and Mrs. Kadoi Minako from the division of Japan Language Education. On this occasion, a meeting was held to discuss the cooperation that has existed for approximately 35 years since the establishment of the Japanese Language and Culture Study Program, Faculty of Cultural Science, Gadjah Mada University in 1989. Apart from that, there were several important things that were also discussed, including making plans regarding future cooperation, discussing the development of Japanese science and the challenges faced in the current and future eras. It is hoped that this meeting will have a positive impact on the cooperative relationship between the two organizations in the future. In this way, the goals of both the Japan Foundation (JF) and the Japanese Language and Culture Study Program, especially in the field of education, can be carried out well.

On January 25th 2024 at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, a Faculty Working Meeting was held. The meeting discussed strategies for achieving Performance Achievement Targets, while the location of the meeting was in rooms 707 and 709 on the 7th floor of the Soegondo building. Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Prof. Dr. Setiadi, S.Sos., M.Si., directly chaired the meeting which was attended by all lecturers at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences for approximately 4 hours starting from 9.00 am. The meeting was held in a hybrid manner and was attended by a total of 154 lecturers as meeting participants.

The Performance Achievement Target itself contains many things regarding the performance of each faculty’s resources, some of which are about things that the faculty has, the growth that is occurring, and what needs to be improved. Strengthening partnership cooperation in tridharma activities involving lecturers and students, developing an integrated innovation ecosystem, as well as increasing recognition of the excellence of study programs at national and international levels were also important points in the meeting. There are 30 indicators mandated directly by universities to faculties. Furthermore, the mandate giver who is the Chancellor of Gadjah Mada University, Prof. Dr. Ova Emilia, M.Med.Ed., Sp.OG(K), Ph.D., through the Planning Directorate will monitor and evaluate the achievement of performance indicator targets periodically/every quarter.

An Nuur Khairune Nisa, Delfyan Intan Nurmala Fadin, and Putrisari Oktaviani Gustiarti have written a journal entitled “Experiencing Museum: Eksplorasi Digital Free Tourism di Museum Ullen Sentalu, Yogyakarta,” which explores the concept of Digital Free Tourism (DFT) in the context of experiencing a museum at Ullen Sentalu. The study aims to analyze the implementation of the DFT concept at the Ullen Sentalu Museum in Yogyakarta and its implications for the museum tourism experience. This research employs a qualitative method with an exploratory study approach conducted through data collection methods, including observation, in-depth interviews, and literature review gathered from journals, books, articles, and the Ullen Sentalu Museum’s website.

The findings of this research reveal that the Ullen Sentalu Museum has successfully applied the DFT concept by controlling the on-site technology used during museum tours to protect the collection’s security and create a more profound museum experience, enhancing visitors’ curiosity and well-being. Ullen Sentalu also does not reject digital utilization, instead, they create an innovation by optimizing digital content during pre-site and post-site stages to reflect their commitment to staying relevant in the digital era while preserving traditional values in DFT.

This journal originated from the final assignment of the Tourism Article Writing course conducted at the end of 2023. At the beginning of the semester, the authors sought an interesting issue amid the current development of digital technology. Besides its positive impacts, the massive development of digital technology can also have negative impacts on the tourism sector, giving rise to a new theory known as Digital Free Tourism. Interestingly, this concept has already been implemented around us, as exemplified by the Ullen Sentalu Museum. Due to the limited studies on DFT in Indonesia, especially in the context of museums, they decided to explore DFT at the Ullen Sentalu Museum and its connection to “experiencing museum”. They found that DFT is closely related to the tourist experience and enhances curiosity and well-being. Last, An Nuur stated that this topic is undoubtedly intriguing to delve deeper into, as tourism without digital elements actually adds meaning to tourism itself.

The journal can be accessed through: jurnal.ugm.ac.id/tourism_pariwisata/article/download/92457/3818