The Faculty of Engineering, Yogyakarta State University (FT UNY) continues to expand and focus their collaboration with the Faculty of Vocational Technical Education Universiti Tun Husein Onn Malaysia (FPTV UTHM). This was resulted in virtual meeting as a follow-up and evaluation of cooperation programs between FT UNY and FPTV UTHM which was stated in the Memorandum of Agreement between the two parties. This coordination was carried out online through the Gmeet application (15/04/2021) which was attended by deans, deputy deans, and heads of the UTHM FPTV department as well as deans, deputy deans and FT UNY's S2 study program coordinator.
Dean of FT UNY, Prof. Herman Dwi Surjono explained that the cooperation programs with FPTV UTHM have been established for quite some times and are mutually beneficial for both parties. "One of the early programs that has continued to be improved since 2015 is teaching practice where we facilitate FPTV UTHM students to teach at vocational schools around UNY and we also send FT UNY students to Malaysia to gain experience as teachers at Vocational Colleges under the coordination of FPTV UTHM," explained Herman.
"The condition of the Covid-19 pandemic has actually expanded our cooperation, although we cannot attend directly, various cooperation programs can be carried out effectively with online platforms, such as visiting professors and guest lecturers which are conducted with distance learning process," he continued.
"Several studies through joint-research and joint-publication schemes have also been carried out between FT UNY and FPTV UTHM lecturers, such as Virtual Reality (VR) products to support learning during this pandemic," he explained.
Meanwhile, Prof. Abdul Rasid also admitted that the collaboration with FT UNY has been going very well and hopes to continue to be improved as time goes by. He stated that there are many similarities between FT UNY and FPTV UTHM, especially in the field of developing vocational education.
"In the future, the cooperation program that is being synergized is student exchange at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels," explained Abdul Rasid for his final statement. (hryo; translated by SFS)
