The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) chooses Universitas Brawijaya (UB) as a facilitator for foreign students. This can be seen from the activities held by Bappenas and the South Cooperation of UB with foreign students at Pelataran Bromo, Friday (16/4/2021).
Expert Staff of the Vice Rector IV for Foreign Cooperation Karuniawan Puji Wicaksono, PhD revealed, from the discussion held between the Minister of Bappenas and 13 foreign students of UB, all gave positive responses to the services provided by UB.
“According to them, the services provided by UB are very good. Until we were confused and asked what criticism for UB, but they still answered the best, “he said.
He hopes that with the positive response given, foreign students will be able to become ambassadors for Indonesia and UB especially when they return to their respective countries.
Meanwhile, the Coordinator of Global Development Cooperation, KemPPN / Bappenas, Priyanto Rohmattullah admitted that UB was chosen because it is the leading other university with a number of scholarship innovations.
“UB is also an active campus in providing scholarships. UB has a number of innovations in providing scholarships apart from being managed by the Ministry of Education and Culture and Ristekdikti. Generally, other campuses manage ristekdikti and darmasiswa scholarships. So that UB is leading there, “he said.
UB itself has been able to manage scholarships for foreign students. The scholarships given can come from UB own funds or in collaboration with alumni such as Munir Foundation.
Through this activity, Priyo hopes that foreign students from developing countries will not only learn but also increase people-to-people contact, one of which is by promoting Indonesia to their country.
“If the promotion of Indonesia is only carried out Government to Government I think it is not effective, so it is necessary to optimize promotional efforts through word of mouth in the field of Indonesian trade and investment,” he said.
The dialogue activity with the Ministry of Bappenas and UB is a series of work visits to East Java.
One of the policy directions of the Ministry of Bappenas in the 2020-2024 RPJMN is to strengthen international development cooperation (KPI) with a strategy, one of which is strengthening South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) to support trade and investment. (OKY / Humas UB/ Trans. Iir).
