A group of students majoring in Chemistry Education of UNY consisting of Asmi Aris, Ilyas Gistiana and Hafiizhoh Hanafia, developed natural antibacterial soap made of Jatropha curcas Linn and cooking oil waste.

The Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, Nadiem Anwar Makarim, inaugurated several administrator officials and supervisory officials within The Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) on 28 January 2021. There are new 11 officials and Prof. Dr. Sumaryanto, M.Kes., AIFO was inaugurated as the Rector of Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta (UNY) for the period 2021-2025. Prof. Sumaryanto became the second Rector from the Faculty of Sports Science, after previously Prof. Dr. Arma Abdullah, M.Sc. became the 6th Rector of UNY for the period 1987-1991.

The price of fish pellets on the market is getting more expensive. In fact, feeding cost takes around 70% from the production cost. This is what encourages students of the Science Education Study Program, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, UNY, namely Dinda Restu Nabila, Siska Yulianti and Faridatul Liana to innovate catfish alternative pellet.

Domestic waste is a serious problem in urban areas. This waste, which consists of organic and inorganic materials, reduces the beauty of the city, creates unwanted odors in several places, and during the rainy season the garbage can obstruct the flow of rivers, resulting in floods. Public awareness in reusing household waste is still low, even though these items can still be reused or converted into other useful forms. This problem inspires a group of UNY students who used the waste as a souvenir in the form of a miniature steam locomotive.

The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of UNY held a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with the theme "Developing Cooperation and Building Harmonization of ASEAN Higher Education through the Merdeka Campus Joint Curriculum and Merdeka Learning Curriculum”. The FGD which was held offline and virtual was attended by the Acting Rector, Prof. Dr.

Faculty of Enginering UNY held an online virtual virtual reality (VR) / Internet of Things (IoT) product launch by lecturers and students in collaboration with international partner universities on December 28, 2020.

Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta (UNY) in collaboration with Fatoni University, Thailand held an International Summer Course Program on Cross Cultural Understanding online (25-26 / 12/2020). This program was attended by students majoring in Malay from Fatoni University as participants while a lecturer from the Department of Indonesian Language and Literature Education, UNY, Beniati Lestyarini, M.Pd. and Haryanto are appointed to deliver the course. The agenda opened by the Acting Rector of UNY.

On December 11, 2020, the Aksa Biantara Team representing UNY Robotics team from student activity unit of Technology Engineering participated in the 2020 Widyatama International Innovation & Academic Competition at Widyatama University. This team participated in Instrumentation & Control Contest II category and won 2nd place with an innovation presented as "Dynamic Float Telemetry Based On Blimp Drone for Multi-node Disaster Detection System".

Student and Alumni Affairs of Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta held a webinar with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). The webinar had the theme "Developing a clean and integrated Next Generation of a Nation " on Wednesday, December 16, 2020. This webinar has Dr. Albertina Ho Rusmana, S.H, M.H., the KPK supervisory board, as the main speaker.

The event, which was held online, was attended by approximately 225 students and attended offline by the head of the Student Organization and the leader of the Student Activity Unit located in the UNY digital library.

Kamasetra,  one of UNY Student Activity Units, released an audio drama entitled Salah Kaprah (common mistake that is naturally done by many). The audio drama was released in two parts, the first part was released on December 6, 2020 while the second part was released on December 12, 2020. The audio drama was uploaded to Kamasetra UNY's Youtube and Instagram accounts and available for public to enjoy.