Faculty of Geography, Universitas Gadjah Mada together with partner universities incorporated into the Centers for Natural Resources and Development (CNRD), successfully held the sixth IMaREC workshop on 12-15 August 2019. The workshop participants consisted of Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia; Ain Sham University (ASU), Egypt; TH Köln, Germany; Kenyatta University (KU), Kenya and Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP), Mexico. The purpose of this activity is to discuss the curriculum of the master’s program at each university that is incorporated into IMaREC. The curriculum discussion of this master’s program aims to accommodate students who are interested in taking courses at partner universities.
On the first day, IMaREC 2019 began with remarks from Prof. Muh Aris Marfai as Dean of the Faculty of Geography, Universitas Gadjah Mada. Through this workshop, Prof. Marfai hopes to find a suitable location to be a natural laboratory for research in Indonesia. The activity continued with the introduction of all participants and reported on the status quo and the application of IMaREC at each partner university. The discussion that was held discussed about credit hours, tuition fees, academic calendar, modules, and student mobility.
The meeting continued on the second day by discussing lecture modules and lecture system. Teaching team at each IMaREC partner university should describe and update modules containing lecture materials. In addition, the teaching team is also responsible to link the each partner university modules. Each module has different basic science such as engineering, art, and architecture. Lecture system at each partner university could be regular or block system.
On the third day, all workshop participants conduct field activities in several places, namely Development Planning Agency at Sub-National Level Office (Bappeda Kulon Progo), Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA), and Sand Dunes in Parangtritis Beach area, Bantul. The Bappeda Kulon Progo Office stated that there was rapid economic growth in the Kulon Progo area which was the effect of YIA development. They emphasize local productions such as local chicken eggs, bottled water from local water sources, local minimarkets, etc. as an effort to increase the people’s income. The development of YIA was based on the need to accommodate the high number of flights entering the Yogyakarta Special Region. Field activities ended by visiting the location of Sand Dunes in Parangtritis Beach area. Dr. Dyah Rahmawati Hizbaron explained about Sand Dunes, the formation, and the changes made by the local people to it.
IMaREC activities ended on the fourth day with a discussion aboutfunding for the mobility of students and lecturers in IMaREC partner universities, academic score transfer schemes, regular meetings to monitor IMaREC progress, and the creation of an IMaREC website. There are several options for solving funding problems, namely funding sourced from each IMaREC partner university, expanding the IMaREC network so that more institutions contribute to IMaREC funding, or funding by an independent foundation. Academic score transfer schemes need to be discussed further because each university has a different grading system and has not been adjusted accordingly. Regular meetings will be held every 3 months to monitor the progress of IMaREC activities. Further promotion related to IMaREC will be carried out by creating an official website and social media platform (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).