University of St. Andrews, a small campus in the beautiful country of Scotland, carries a global academic reputation. Although only about one-seventh of the University’s student body is currently studying there, the University of St. Andrews has a tradition of education, research, and culture that attracts students from many countries. This was revealed during the visit of Lesley Thirkell, Deputy Director of International Education Institute, University of St. Andrews, to Universitas Brawijaya on Monday (5/2). Lesley was accompanied by Dian Rachmawati, Deputy Manager of the Indonesia-Britain Education Center (IBEC) based in Jakarta.
In the meeting organized by UB’s International Academic Affairs Unit (International Office), Lesley shared her institution’s profile with the audience consisting of International Relations Officer (IRO) representatives from UB’s faculties. According to her, the University of St. Andrews is one of the oldest campuses in the United Kingdom, reaching 600 years old this year. Lesley said there were only four faculties on campus, namely Science, Arts, Medicine, and Divinity (or Religion). The atmosphere on campus feels international as 60% of the students come from outside the UK. “We believe that our knowledge is just a little bit. By bringing people from different countries to our campus, that knowledge will be more developed and more meaningful,” said the woman who is also a lecturer in the Education Department.
Meanwhile, IO-UB Director Dr. Didik Hartono, M.Pd said that his office is very open to opportunities for cooperation with world universities, especially those ranked QS 200 and below. According to him, IO-UB carries out the mission of increasing UB’s reputation and interaction with academic communities outside Indonesia. And among the government’s assistance to realize UB’s mission is through programs such as IISMA. “Our Rector advised us that UB has increased its achievements, so we need to make efforts to flap our wings internationally,” said the lecturer at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences.
