UNAIR NEWS – Studying abroad usually leaves interesting experiences. Andi Hermansyah, M.Sc, Apt., the lecturer of Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) who is currently taking his doctoral program in Australia has some of them.

For Andi, one of the interesting experiences was when he was participating 3MTC competition or 3 Minutes Thesis Challenge in October 2015. The competition was held in Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, Australia.

What is 3MTC? 3MTC is a competition special for students who takes doctoral program to present their scientific oration according to topics they study in three minutes. The participants are from different parts of the world.

“The participants were from Vietnam, Austrlia and other countries. There were two from Indonesia,” said the master graduate of Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Holland.

Andi said that 3MTC has some differences from the regular thesis exam. The main focus of 3MTC is presenting their interesting research summary to public in a short duration, three minutes.

“While the thesis exam has thorough evaluation on the process from when the research started to the final results,” explained Andi. “Both have common thread but they are incomparable. Of course three minutes will never be enough, but it shows how we can make concise and intense presentation in a short duration,” he added.

For 3MTC, Andi presented his thesis titled “Investigation to practice change in Australian and Indonesian community pharmacy”. In his research, he elaborated practice change happens in pharmaceutical industries and healthcare service in Australia and Indonesia. The objective is to get insight on the practice development in Indonesian community pharmacy.

“Alhamdulilah with God’s bless, I won the competition,” he said.

Andi said that in order to participate in 3MTC, there were some challenges he had to face. Beside presenting a thesis in a short duration, excellent English skill to present the thesis was also a challenge by itself.

“As it was a forum, so the background of the people were different, I was from pharmacy. So we have to make the other people with different backgrounds to understand our presentation in English,” Andi said.

Andi hoped that this kind of scientific competition in Indonesia can be popular as other countries like Australia, New Zealand, even Malaysia often hold this kind of competition. There is still possibility to hold this 3MTC competition in Indonesia.

“Because we know that our researches are plenty, but how can we sell them in three minutes, it’s good. It can be uploaded in social media to expand knowledge of the public,” he said. (*)

Author : Dilan Salsabila
Editor : Defrina Sukma S.