After participating in the learning process for one semester (equivalent to 20 credits), Universitas Brawijaya officially released the second year of Independent Student Exchange (PMM) inbound students, Saturday (18/12). This PMM activity is part of the Independent Learning program which aims to strengthen and explore the diversity of the archipelago in order to improve academic competence, reminding that in this program UB is included in (moving) clusters between islands. The distribution of universities from areas outside Java also delegate their students to study at UB campus.
By participating in the four main types of activities in the Archipelago module (diversity, inspiration, reflection, social contribution), these students get a lot of learning experiences outside the campus, starting from community service such as teaching classes in schools, social service activities, volunteering in the health sector to activities promotion of diversity which consists of introducing elements of culture, language, religion to beliefs (customs) in an area. Vice Rector I for Academic Affairs, Prof. Dr. Aulanni’am drh, DES really appreciated the PMM activities this year. According to her, the number of inbound PMM participants who take part in learning activities at UB can provide new colors and experiences when they are in Malang City, so that during their studies both on and off campus, PMM students get positive impressions from the learning process, friendship to service facilities provided by the university.
The distribution of PMM participants this year was also quite large, with 14 receiving faculties or home base of 92 inbound students from 40 universities of origin. “Besides that, we have also sent UB students to participate in this activity. There were 28 outbound PMM students who were sent to 6 islands namely Sumatra (11 students), Kalimantan (2 students), Bali (3 students), Sulawesi (5 students), NTT (5 students), Papua (2 students) with a spread of 17 destination universities,” she said.
The release of the PMM participants entitled “Exchange While, Together Forever” was enlivened through various cultural performances. They and other PMM students had the opportunity to present arts from their respective regional cultures, including the contemporary Zapin dance and Nagabonar drama from Sumatra, four ethnic dances and stage theater from Sulawesi, Balinese Anyar poetry and Bungbung joged dance from Bali to East Indonesian dances from Papua. Participant of PMM program, Ni Wayan Dita Maharani as the Head of PMM 2 Tribe expressed her gratitude to all UB academics who have so far provided many new colors for all inbound students. There are invaluable experiences aside from studying at UB campus, where the atmosphere of the learning environment, the closeness of fellow students, to the memories of their togetherness in Malang city make this diving learning trip very valuable. [Humas UB/ Trans. Iir]
