UNAIR NEWS – The Faculty of Law (FH) Universitas Airlangga brought nine students to receive the Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA). IISMA is a scholarship program held by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, which allows students to pursue short-time studies at universities aboard. One of the IISMA awardees from FH UNAIR, Raymond Jonathan, receive the scholarship program at the Faculty of Arts and Social Studies, Universiti Malaya.
To UNAIR NEWS, December 29, 2022, Raymond expressed his satisfaction as an IISMA awardee. For him, IISMA is such an exclusive privilege.
“It was delightful and amazing. I’m grateful for the privilege to study abroad at Universiti Malaya, one of the best universities in Southeast Asia and the best university in Malaysia. Besides, Universiti Malaya is listed in the top seventy best universities worldwide,” he said.
He further shared his learning experience overseas. He found no significant challenges in his social life, as Indonesia and Malaysia are cognate countries.
“I did not experience much culture shock as Malaysia and Indonesia are lexical. There’s indeed a little difference in culture and language, and those are not entirely the same. Therefore, I mostly use English to avoid miscommunication. The people are friendly. Universiti Malaya has suitable facilities to support international students to adapt to the locals,” Raymond said.
He explained the significant differences in academics between Universiti Malaya and Indonesia regarding quality and study load.
“In here, the academic quality is excellent, with many excellent learning sources. My learning objectives are achieved. The facility and access are much easier than in Indonesia, and easy access to high-quality reading references. In line with the quality, the study load here is much higher than in Indonesia. There are different schedules for subjects and tutorials, which were done every week,” Raymond said.
In the end, he shared his impression of IISMA. He realized that IISMA is a complex program. It goes beyond students’ opportunity to learn overseas. IISMA carries a cultural mission as well.
“Thanks to IISMA, I’ve gained a lot of knowledge. It’s about the transfer of academic and cultural knowledge where Indonesian students become agents of Indonesian culture, like when I did a cultural performance to introduce our culture in Universiti Malaya,” he ended.
Author: Fredrick Binsar Gamaliel M
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
