How does it feel to be a foreign students in a country that have a lower quality education than they country? Would they study seriously? Is it not easy to interact with local students? Okay, before we answer those question, let’s see the problem of foreign student in Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) UGM? FEB UGMis a destination for student exchange from many countries. This is because our campus is on the way to have an international certification.
Actually, student exchange program have many positive values.The Faculty said that the success rate of this exchange program could be an indicator on how well FEB UGM has been maintaining its position in the global education scene through internalization of international and cross-border understanding values. This also will be a plus score in the FEB UGM’s application of Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation.
But the problem is most of foreign students are having difficulties adapting with the society in FEB UGM. Our investigation proved, as the minority, it is hard for the foreign students to first approach the locals. The Indonesian culture is way too different than their home country. For example, It’s not easy for foreign student to interact with other local students because of the language. But, they are now trying to understand Bahasa Indonesia so they can be more communicative to fellow local students in daily manner.
Beside the culture relativity problem, they also have a critic about education system in FEB UGM. According to them, the learning hour here in Indonesia is longer than they have back in home university. In there, they have to study about 1,5 hours every session, but in here they have to attend the class for 2,5 hours. They also discover that FEB UGM has more strict rules than in Europe, such as minimum attendance requirement and dress code. But for them, this kind of rule is actually unnecessary because it’s supposed to be based on each student’s self-responsibility as an adult student.
To fix the interaction problem, Faculty held a program to strengthen interaction between Indonesian and foreign student. But, it still doesnot get a good attention; just a little foreign students who joined this program. The Faculty said this is because FEB UGM don’t have an international accreditation. So, the Faculty can’t give strict regulation.
Sociologist said, there are three factors affected the interaction between Indonesians and foreigners, apart from the foreigners itself. All elements of civitas academica should have desire, believe, and opportunities if we really want to exchange our cultures and knowledge. So let’s take our opportunities, be optimist, and more interactive!
