In the first week of the 2023-2024 academic session, a team from the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) of the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) shared their experiences on the State Budget with students of the Development Economics Study Program (DESP), Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS), Thursday, September 31, 2023 at the Suhardi FEB UNS Building.
The agenda entitled ‘State Budget Simulation Lecture’ was a follow-up agenda to the partnership that had previously been carried out between DESP FEB and the BKF Ministry of Finance. In her welcoming remark, Dr. Dwi Prasetyani, SE, M.Sc., Vice Dean of Academic, Research, and Student Affairs of FEB UNS expressed her gratitude to BKF for the partnership with FEB UNS.
“Representing the faculty, we express our gratitude to BKF for its willingness to maintain the establishment of partnership. We hope for future breakthroughs, thus, the current collaboration can be more meaningful and impactful for students,” she said.
Further, Dr. Dwi hopes that this collaboration will not only contribute impact to the FEB academic community, but also to UNS, other universities aside from UNS, and also for local governments.
One of the collaboration initiatives that is still in the discussion process is the establishment of a Fiscal Corner. The Fiscal Corner will be a space for collaboration between FEB and the Ministry of Finance.
It is also said that the DESP is included as a study program that has the highest contribution number of the top ten collaborations at UNS. This is a commendable achievement.
After receiving direction at the Suhardi Building, students participated in a simulation activity, which was divided into 3 classes and led by the BKF Team and each DESP Lecturer as Supervisor.
Meanwhile, Dr. Suryanto said Indonesia as an agrarian region was also certainly affected negatively by climate change. According to the records of KLH (2004), examples of climate change are the rise of air temperature and continuous rainfall over a long period of time between 50 to 100 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that global air temperatures have increased 0.6 degrees Celsius (1 degree Fahrenheit) since 1861.
“Just like us, if we are disturbed once, we may withstand it, the second we can withstand it, the third time we can’t withstand it anymore and will get angry. A similar concept applies to the earth, the environment, and how can we be kind to the environment, thus creating a mutual relationship between the environment and humans. Meaning that we can carry out our economic activities, while the environment also maintained to supports our lives,” he explained.
UNS became one of the partner universities for the Kampus Merdeka to organize an initiative program from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek), namely Wirausaha Merdeka (Merdeka Entrepreneurship). This program provides opportunities for students to learn and develop themselves into prospective entrepreneurs. They hone the entrepreneurial spirit, encourage entrepreneurial experience improvement, and increase student employability.
Community Service Team from Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Solo provides assistance by providing science and technology and business management mentoring, as well as providing support and solutions in accordance with the problems faced by the Putri Kawung Bayat Joint Business Group (Kube).
Before presenting a short profile of FEB UNS, Prof. Djoko introduced the FEB leadership who were present on the occasion. “Currently, FEB UNS has 8 study programs, consisting of 4 undergraduate programs, 3 master’s programs, and 1 doctoral program. All study programs at FEB UNS have received excellent accreditation from the National Accreditation Bodies, while all three undergraduate programs have been accredited by AQAS,” he said.
Through this introduction, Prof. Huang said that currently, I-Shou University has around 40,000 students and 20,000 students at National Cheng Kung University.
The partnership discussion between FEB UNS and the two universities from Taiwan was led by Dr. Retno Tanding Suryandari, Head of MM FEB UNS Study Program.
“As it has been delivered by Prof. Huang, at I-Shou University there is an international business program that is suitable for further collaboration discussion with UNS. International programs are more suitable for the international partnership process, due to language barriers in domestic programs,” explained Dr. Retno concluded the explanation from the I-Shou University delegation.
The SEANTURI program launch and inauguration was carried out symbolically by cutting a tumpeng. Tumpeng cutting was carried out by village representatives and the PPK Ormawa BEM FEB UNS Team as a symbol of welcoming the PPK Ormawa BEM FEB UNS 2023 team and the SEANTURI program by the Karangturi Village community.
Meanwhile, to the participating students, Dr. Dwi revealed the importance of having a certificate of competency. “It is a great opportunity for you to be here, we hope that you can make the most of this occasion, once again this is for yourself in the future. Certification is important, when you have certification for certain competencies then it will be a good portfolio and will definitely attract those who will open vacancies. Whatever the profession, you must have a certification of competency,” she motivates the students.
“Later when students join an internship program at a logistics company, or at an exporter, or at an importer, they are ready. You shall not be entering an internship with zero preparation. If you have zero preparation, we who are in the logistics industry must also provide lessons from scratch. But if you have a minimum level of preparation or knowledge, at least we only need to fill you in at 60-70%. Then, you just need to implement it in the field,” he explained.