UPN Veteran Jakarta continues expanding the university’s international cooperation with other universities overseas. Several efforts have been made including to invite prominent Ambassadors in Jakarta to address a public lecture at the university. The institutional relation with the embassy is deemed to contribute positively by introducing about UPN Veteran Jakarta and to obtain more potential foreign university partners.

On 21 Nov 2019, UPN Veteran Jakarta had a great honor to welcome Ambassador of Kingdom of Morocco, H.E. Oudia Benabdellah who was willing to address a lecture entitled “Indonesia-Morocco: the New Era.” In historical perspective, Morocco and Indonesia have built strong ties since the early independence. In fact, there is an avenue in Rabat called Soekarno Rue in order to commemorate the friendship between two Nations.

Erna Hernawati, Rector of UPN Veteran Jakarta, expressed her appreciation for the Ambassador’s visit and requested the Embassy’s support to build up relation with Moroccan well-known universities. According to UniRank, several universities are considered as the top 5, including Université Mohammed V in Rabat, Université Cadi Ayyad in Marrakech, Université Ibn Zohr in Agadir, Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah in Fez and Université Al Akhawayn in Ifrane.

Ambassador Oudia said several Indonesian universities had already connected with Moroccon campuses. They have run some collaborative programs including in education exchanges. “The Embassy will facilitate the communication between UPN Veteran Jakarta and Moroccan universities,” said Ambassador.

Meanwhile, hundreds students and lecturers of UPN Veteran Jakarta attended the Ambassador Lecture Series which was hosted by Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, FISIP UPN Veteran Jakarta. Ambassador Oudia presented a comprehensive picture of Morocco’s geo-economics, to ensure that business and economic relations between two Countries should be much greater. “We are working to realize Preferential Trading Agreement (PTA) between Morocco and Indonesia,” added Ambassador.

The public lecture was moderated by Andi Kurniawan, one of International Relations scholars at UPN Veteran Jakarta. Andi told the public lecture would become a precious opportunity for students and lecturers in order to learn directly from the high-rank diplomat about the international cooperation, foreign policy and African studies. Furthermore, ‘we are trying to boost people-to-people contact in education in parallel with our government’s effort to enhance Indonesia relations with African Countries, Andi unveiled.

Ambassador Lecture Series has been organized by FPCI Chapter UPN Veteran Jakarta that has been very actively promoting international relations students programs.