On the move to the world class university, Yogyakarta State University (YSU) through its Graduate School tries to widen its cooperation network with foreign institutions. In the attempt to meet the goal of the international cooperation, Art Education Master’s Program (AEMP) of Graduate School YSU has recently been through the initial stage to cooperate with Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia (15/10/2015). UiTM delegates visited Graduate School of YSU and were warmly greeted by Director of Graduate School, Prof. Dr. Zuhdan K. Prasetyo, M.Ed. Attending the agenda were Prof. Dr. Trie Hartiti Retnowati as the Head of Art Education Department, Dr. Ayu Niza Mahfauzia, and Drs. Bambang Prihadi, M.Pd.

“As the stakeholder in this graduate school, we welcome the possibility for cooperation. We hope the cooperation can be the place for sharing to increase eduation qualities, particularly in the field of art. For further details on the cooperation, please proceed and discuss it with the Head of and lecturers of AEMP,” says Prof. Zuhdan in his speech.

Represented by Badrul Isa, M.A. and Sumardianshah Bin Silah, M.A., UitM initially invited Art Education Department lecturers for the 2nd International Symposium on Language and Arts Education UiTM-UNY-UPI 2015 (2015ISOLA). The event will take place on December 10, 2015 in UiTM Shah Alam, Malaysia.

Today’s agenda facilitated both parties to conduct discussion on academic atmosphere in each campus, particularly in the field of art. Art education in YSU is centered in Faculty of Languages and Arts and spread over several departments, namely musics, dances, fine arts, and handicraft. Meanwhile in UitM, art education has spread not in one umbrella university as in YSU, but in several faculties; those are Faculty of Musics, Faculty of Movie, Theatre, and Animation, and Faculty of Arts and Designs.

The other significant thing to discuss was in terms of academic field. The cooperation to initiate will be in the form of joint research, student exchange, lecturer exchange, and other cooperation in academic field.

We expect this MoU draft can be finished soon so this cooperation can be put into practice. Hopefully these first-year students in the program will gain the advantage,” says Hartiti as the Head of Art Education Department YSU. (Rubiman)