Dr. H. Didi Sukyadi, MA accompanied by Prof. Dr. H. Suwatno, M.Si held an audience of Papuan and West Papuan students in the UPI University Center meeting room on Monday (07/03/2022). This activity was attended by Prof. Didi Sukyadi, Prof. Suwatno, and Dr. Sandey Tantra Paramitha, M.Pd. This activity provides solutions to the problems experienced by Papuan and West Papuan students while studying at UPI.
Problems that often arise are problems related to information, both from the sender and the recipient of the information. “The first information is related to educational affirmations. Of course, this is about how they receive scholarships, when the scholarships must be disbursed, proposed, and reported so that later they will not experience problems or obstacles when using the funds that need to be used for education, “said Dr. Sandey during an interview.
Furthermore, he revealed that the funding side was very supportive in increasing the motivation of affirmative Papuan and West Papuan students to study at UPI. UPI provides services to Papuan and West Papuan students in the form of welcoming and outreach related to UPI’s profile, including information about language, culture, and customs on the UPI campus. This is intended to help them adapt in preparing themselves to attend lectures.
The meeting also discussed the Higher Education Affirmation (Afirmasi Pendidikan Tinggi: ADik) scholarship. Of the total 83 Papua and West Papua students at UPI, 25 of them are ADik scholarship recipients who have been verified as active students.
Papuan and West Papuan students at UPI who received the ADik scholarship came from the Sociology Education study program, Mechanical Engineering Education, Business Education, Catering Education, Architecture, Educational Administration, Special Education, Building Engineering Education, Accounting Education, Resort Leisure Management, Teacher Education Elementary School, Social Science Education, Education Technology Curriculum, Music Arts Education, and Master’s Degree students.
ADik scholarship recipients hope that this activity can help them convey their academic and non-academic problems. “Hopefully we are closer to conveying our concerns. The message for Papuan and West Papuan students at UPI is to continue to be enthusiastic about learning and developing talents so that they can compete with other friends,” said Fanny and Okto when interviewed at the meeting. (Arga Wijaya & Finan Azka, UPI Public Relations contributor)