New Leadership, Faculty of Vocational Studies to Establish Applied Master’s Programs

UNAIR NEWS  – On Wednesday September 30, 2020, Universitas Airlangga Rector inaugurated Prof. Dr. Anwar Ma’ruf, M.Kes., drh as the new dean of UNAIR Faculty of Vocational Studies. The professor who took all his degrees, from bachelor to doctoral degree at Universitas Airlangga will lead Faculty of Vocational Studies from 2020 to 2025.

Under his command, Prof. Anwar started establishing some new policies in line with the SMART university program and internationalization initiated by UNAIR Rector. “It will be aligned with the program launched by our Rector in 2020-2025, SMART university and internationalization. We will apply these two points in Faculty of Vocational Studies, in terms of learning, education, cooperation, research, and community service, “he said.

One of the policies in the education sector mentioned by Prof. Anwar is to establish an applied master’s program. He said that it was an effort to support UNAIR towards Top 500 World Class University (WCU).

As planned, some master’s degree programs will be opened, including in Physiotherapy, Traditional Medicine, and Radiology. The other vocational programs, added Prof. Anwar, must have the four year vocational program (D4) level first.

“We are still in the process of preparing academic papers and feasibility studies. Because, it needs very thorough preparation, “he said.

In addition to opening applied master’s program, Faculty of Vocational Studies education will refer to Airlangga Smart Education. For this reason, the faculty improves various aspects of online learning implementation. So students can study any time without being tied to places, spaces, or time.

On the other hand, Prof. Anwar will also initiate Assisted Village program. In addition to empowering the community, the Assisted Village program can be a place to apply research results.

Assisted village is also a huge opportunity for branding. “We hope that there will be a lot of collaborations. If the branding is very good, then collaboration or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) will easily enter Faculty of Vocational Studies, “he said.

Meanwhile, to boost publication, Prof. Anwar will encourage research development through existing research groups. According to him, Faculty of Vocational Studies has greater publication potential than the Postgraduate School because, there are 22 programs with multidisciplinary knowledge that can be explored.

Prof. Anwar said, Faculty of Vocational Studies has received funding of Rp. 2.2 billion from the Director General of Vocational Studies. “This is part of research projects that will continue to be developed,” said the former Vice Director of UNAIR Postgraduate School.

The increase in inbound and outbound students, as well as inbound and outbound staff will continue to be intensified. Moreover, to encourage internationalization, some aspects should be also strengthened. For example, the employer peer list and academic peer list.

In the end, Prof. Anwar also emphasized the importance of collaborations with various parties, including with agencies, both national and global. Hopefully, through collaboration, he said, students will immediately get a job from the internship program.

“Starting from engineering, business, to health, everything is in the Faculty of Vocational Studies. It will open up a big opportunity for reinforcement in various aspects at once, “he concluded. (*)