Preparing human resources for the era of industry 4.0 and society 5.0 is a top priority in universities and ministries in the next five years by creating competitive human resources for future leaders. The primary process is guiding, learning, and character-building of students. That's why the campus nowadays opens various opportunities for internships, student exchanges, projects in villages, entrepreneurship, research, and teaching activities in remote areas, ideally three semesters outside the program. Thus said by the Acting Director of Learning and Student Affairs of the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research and Technology of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia Dr. Sri Gunani Pratiwi, in a public lecture at the UNY Auditorium, Monday (22/8).
"Higher education must be able to instill nationalism and the foundation of values and a sense of nationality," said Sri Gunani Pratiwi. Furthermore, universities need to provide general education through various means, including providing insight by lecturers through ice-breaking and test cases as part of learning. Regarding independent learning and independent campus learning, Sri Gunani explained that universities are obliged to give students the right to take courses outside their universities for 2 semesters or take credits in different study programs at the same univerity for 1 semester which can be taken voluntarily. "This is to instill leadership attitudes in students," she said. The Directorate of Learning and Student Affairs also offers several student coaching activities such as student creativity programs, entrepreneurial student development programs, student digital entrepreneurial innovations, National Community Service Program, and student management skills training.
Professor of UNY Prof. Suyanto said that the industrial revolution 4.0 brought extraordinary changes due to smart technology, cloud computing, big data, and networks. Therefore, students must have a growth mindset. In addition, today's students must have 21st century digital skills and literacy because currently various human needs have widely applied the support of the internet and the digital world as a vehicle for interaction and transactions such as the sharing economy, marketplace, e-government, e-education or smart appliances. Therefore, students must be able to adapt. Otherwise, they will become extinct. The lecturer at the Faculty of Economics of UNY asked students to reflect on themselves with positive thinking because this belief will underlie their mindset. "If you think positively, it will affect your behavior," said Suyanto. According to him, at this time the symptoms of the transformation of the industrial revolution have been felt, such as the shifting of physical stores to online marketplaces and the mode of transportation shifting from traditional taxis/ojeks to online modes. Competence today places creativity at the top of the ten skills needed in a job, whereas five years ago, it was still at the bottom. This indicates a change in world trends. New students at UNY Suyanto said they should master several competencies, including creativity, critical thinking, communication, and willingness to collaborate.
This public lecture is one part of the Introduction to Campus Life for New Students (PKKMB) UNY. The activity, which was held offline and online, was opened by the Chancellor of UNY, Prof. Sumaryanto, who stated that in 2022 UNY will accept 12,693 new students of diploma, bachelor, master, and doctoral levels selected from 188,052 applicants. "With various considerations, those who attend offline are limited to 500 students," said Sumaryanto. Taking the theme 'Optimizing the Role of Scholars in Institutional Governance Towards PTNBH' which is in line with the efforts of UNY which is currently carrying out the stages of changing its status to State University as a Legal Entity which will bring consequences to changes in the academic climate and university management structurally and culturally, especially in the field of human resources.
One of the students, Sarah Nurmardyca Putri from the Indonesian Literature Study Program, Faculty of Languages and Arts, was happy to be accepted by UNY and plans to join one of the student organizations at UNY. Meanwhile, Sya'ban Restianto who was accepted into the Electrical Engineering Education study program, was happy because he liked this study program and supported his dream of becoming a teacher.
