Public Relations UPNVJ - Collaboration at the international level needs to be built by universities so that they are able to build global insight and competition in improving the quality of education in Indonesia.

This was carried out by the Jakarta Veteran National Development University (UPNVJ) in collaboration with the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) in an online lecturer exchange scheme via Zoom, by providing strengthening teaching materials to students at ULAB on Wednesday, 6 December 2023.

This form of international cooperation was held as an implementation of the Cooperation Agreement (PKS) agreement between UPNVJ and ULAB which was established through the presence of two permanent lecturers at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) UPNVJ, Fitria Ayuningtyas (Deputy Dean I) and Radita Gora Tayibnapis ( Information Science Study Program Coordinator).

There are two materials presented to ULAB Media Studies and Journalism Department students. Communications for Health Management was presented by Fitria Ayuningtyas, while Computational Social Science on Data Journalism was presented by Radita Gora.

According to Fitria, the collaboration between the two universities, which both have the field of communication studies, aims to build synergy. Not only in exchange of lecturers, but also exchange of insights within it.

"This activity is a continuous collaboration involving elements of mutual need in global cooperation so that ULAB and UPNVJ students have the experience of receiving teaching from foreign lecturers," said Fitria.

"Similarly, lecturer exchanges provide experience to ULAB and UPNVJ lecturers in sharing knowledge and demonstrating expertise in their respective fields which can be transferred to overseas students, not just at the domestic level," he continued.

Sustainable Collaboration

Continuing Fitria's statement, Radita said that this university cooperation agreement at the Asian level was a new pioneer in increasing the Main Performance Index (IKU) in the field of international cooperation, which aims to strengthen the quality of study programs to faculties.

"The achievement of the Main Performance Index in the field of international cooperation is carried out continuously and sustainably, where future relations can continue in different teaching fields," said Radita.

The enthusiasm of lecturers and students goes hand in hand. Students gain different knowledge because they receive teaching that is also different from before.

As stated by Snibil Shadiq, a student of the ULAB media studies and journalism study program, who said that the field of data in activities such as journalism gives its own color, as was taught in the Data Journalism material in the guest lecture delivered by Radita.

"The impression is certainly very different, because the field of data journalism combines the field of communication, especially journalism, with computer-based data science," said Sadiq.

"Students gain a lot of insight into using programming language applications like Python, which can be used in data journalism practice and can also be applied in searching data for news," he said, in a question and answer session on Data Journalism material.

This was also added by Andalib, lecturer in media studies and journalism at ULAB, who said that it was hoped that this guest lecturer's activities would continue and could provide lectures at a later date.

"Of course, the presence of guest lecturers from UPNVJ gets appreciation from students, and it is hoped that in the future this form of teaching and lecturer exchange can be re-established," concluded Andalib.