UAD was Awarded International Grant from British Council

Going Global Partnerships (GGP) between UAD with UoG, British Council

Universitas Ahmad Dahlan (UAD) was awarded another international grant following previous several other international grants from the European Union, Erasmus+. This grant was awarded by the British Council in collaboration with the University of Gloucestershire, UK. This sixth global grant is on Enhancing early childhood and inclusive education training through developing cultural literacy: a UK – Indonesia HEI transnational blended learning exchange. The funding, which will last for one year and six months, was obtained through a long collaboration between UAD and the University of Gloucestershire (UOG) in the UK. Since the first grant, Erasmus + GITA (Growing Indonesia: a Triangular Approach), Erasmus+ BUiLD (Building Universities in Leading Disaster Resilience), Erasmus+ iHiLead (Indonesian Higher Education Leadership), UAD and UOG have established very good cooperation.

The launching of the GGP Program was carried out by the British Council on 1-2 March 2023 in Jakarta and invited the Ministry of Education and Culture as a keynote speaker. On the second day, a workshop on Safeguarding Policy was conducted.

There are two main objectives of this collaborative grant project, designing and implementing a pre-service training enhancement project for teacher candidates working in early childhood education and inclusive education settings, as well as strengthening the existing ties between UOG and UAD so that they can facilitate a new partnership between the School of Education and Humanities at UoG and the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education at UAD.

To accomplish those goals, several activities were planned between UAD and UoG including transnational mixed-learning exchanges in the context of improving Early Childhood Teacher Education and inclusive education training at each institution, opening up opportunities for up to 100 UAD students to take part in child education and elementary school courses to explore ideas, share knowledge and best practices around early childhood and inclusive education with students taking similar courses at UoG, to facilitate student and staff mobility opportunities, to evaluate this scheme as a potentially new transnational model of a working partnership between UK and Indonesia HEIs drawing on the program, Merdeka Learning Merdeka Campus Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology.

To begin this project from 20 to 29 May 2023 three UAD lecturers consisting of Ega Asnatasia Maharani M.Psi., Psychologist. (Early Childhood Teacher Education lecturer), Nurul Hidayati Rofiah M.Pd.I, Ph.D. (Lecturer of Primary School Teacher Education), and Intan Puspitasari S.Psi., M.A. (Early Childhood Teacher Education Lecturer) and a total of six students from Primary School Teacher Education (PG SD) and Early Childhood Teacher Education (PG PAUD) consisting of Imamiatul Azizah, Putri Sabrina Uswatun Hasanah, Najwa Kamila, Ade Berliana Putri, Diah Sinta Sri Berlianti and Dwiky Dharma Panjaitan will take part in the student mobility program and staff at UoG.
Muhammad Sayuti, S.Pd., M.Pd., M.Ed., Ph.D. (The dean of the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education) said, “On behalf of the Dean and the big family of the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of UAD, we are grateful for the British Council’s trust through the Going Global Partnership program in collaboration with the University of Gloucestershire, UK. This program is certainly very useful for us to contribute and participate in the global program of inclusive education. A big agenda for the world and of course for Indonesia. Hopefully, we can carry out this trust as well as possible. Hopefully, the lecturers and students involved will gain valuable experience for their future careers. This program is also to realize the internationalization of FKIP UAD and Muhammadiyah.”

“The implementation of international cooperation activities between UAD with the University of Gloucestershire is one of the most active cooperation at UAD since 2017 with three Erasmus+ projects and several other collaborative activities. The GGP grant from the British Council is the fourth international grant in collaboration with UoG. Apart from that, there have been several other collaborative activities with UoG that have been carried out, for example, General Lectures at the Faculty of Economics and Business and Faculty of Teacher Training and Education as well as international webinars with the English Department. Hopefully, the implementation of cooperation between UAD with UoG will continue to increase “, said Ida Puspita, M.A. Res., Head of the International Partnerships Division.