Globalization has caused major changes in all aspects of human life, including the education sector. The universities in the world compete with each other to get a much better ranking every year. International exposure is now a necessity for a university to get reputation at the global level. To aim the global reputation, Faculty of Animal Husbandry and Agriculture (Fakultas Peternakan dan Pertanian / FPP) of Diponegoro University holds annual program to attract the world’s attention.
Dr. Ir. Bambang Waluyo H. E. P., M.S., M.Agr., IPU as Dean of FPP Undip stated that every year FPP Undip at least has 3 excellent internationalization programs, including Visiting Professors, Summer Programs, and International Conference. In the future, the expanding program is by opening an international class. The Dean of FPP Undip added that the Visiting Professor program was in line with Undip’s vision to become a Excellent Research University.
In 2020, FPP is organizing a Visiting Professor Program which is part of World Class University program promoted by UNDIP. After bringing in World Class Professor from the Philippines last year, now the invited speaker is Professor Peter J. Batt from Curtin University, Australia who will share his knowledge to lecturers and students of FPP Undip.
This program is held not only for Undip FPP internals but also for general public and academics from various universities in Indonesia. In this Visiting Professor Program, there are 2 public lectures, 2 lecturer consultation forums, and 1 online international seminar with the theme “Reframing Food Sovereignty After Covid-19”. This theme is chosen considering that Covid-19 requires farmers to adapt and to review food security of a country with the new perspective.
Meanwhile, public lectures were held twice on 3rd and 10th of November 2020. In the first public lecture, Prof. Peter delivered material about risk management in the agricultural sector, focusing in the fact that farmers are still not fully aware of the problems occured even though they get regular impacts. In the second meeting, Prof. Peter expands his discussion towards marketing agricultural products, which is often a latent problem for farmers. In the two public lectures, the public’s attention is very high both on Zoom and Youtube. Participants also asked various questions to Prof. Peter.
Chairman of the Committee, Siwi Gayatri, Ph.D from the Agribusiness Study Program of Faculty of Animal Husbandry and Agriculture Undip stated that the Visiting Professor Program is expected to strengthen research and academic atmosphere at Undip and to have an impact on the internationalization of in campus. This activity can also be an opportunity to collaborate in improving the quality of research which will lead the increase of international publications. The support of international senior researchers from Curtin University is also beneficial in order to exchange thoughts, ideas, and remarks with academics from FPP Undip. The support is also help to increase achievement of research indicators and publications of Undip.