As known, Universitas Terbuka (UT) has become the State University of the Legal Agency (Perguruan Tinggi Badan Hukum – PTNBH), UT keeps innovating to enhance the quality of business process management of UT to be more effective, efficient, and economic. With its status, UT decides to go worldwide both academically and non-academically and to advance the Quality of the Open and Distance Learning System. Various efforts were organized, including the enhancement of partnership and international network collaboration to develop a mutualism partnership with various parties, notably for internal business process advancement, and service quality to stakeholders, along with the enhancement of learning process effectivities for students through digital transformation in many sectors.
On May 3, 2024, UT delegations held a visitation and joint discussion as a form of international collaboration, also a follow-up of the MoU between Universitas Terbuka and the Local Finance Association (LOFA), South Korea, signed in March 2023. A collaboration implementation of UT, LOFA, and the Ministry of Village, Development of Disadvantaged Regions. Namely, the implementation of the International Seminar in Public Sector, “Pre-Public Sector International Conference (Pre-PSIC) 2024” in Bali on March 3-5, 2024. The formulation result of the International Conference then followed up in a joint discussion between UT and LOFA in LOFA’s office, in South Korea later on.
The benefits of the pre-PSIC result include the obtaining of insight and input for the prominence to implement the accountability and social capital concept in the local wisdom sector between South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Bangladesh. It is hoped to become a significant factor to promote and implement the intellectual property exchange between countries to encounter global problems.
The joint discussion between UT delegations, led by UT Rector, Prof. Ojat Darojat, M.Bus., Ph.D. with LOFA CEO, Dr. Lee-In Jae and his staff to discuss other collaboration implementations. The delegations of UT included Dr. Meirani Harsasi, M.Si. as the Dean of Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Olivia Idrus, SE., M.Sc as the Vice-Dean of Students Affairs, Learning Service, and Partnerships of FEB, Dr. Maya Maria, S.E., M.M. as a Lecturer of FEB and the Head of Marketing and Public Relations Sub Directorate of UT, Prof. Dr. Nafsiah Mohamed as the advisor of FEB UT for the international partnership program, and Halim Dedy Perdana, S.E., M.SM., M.Rech, Ak. as a Lecture of FEB who acted as the coordinator of collaborative agenda between UT and South Korea.
The collaboration form discussed between UT and LOFA, namely, joint research between UT and LOFA will be followed by the dissemination of reputable international journals for village economics topics related to social capital in villages of Asia, especially Indonesia. Prof. Ojat conveyed the importance of other extended collaborations that bring mutual benefits to parties.
Social capital and funding synergy, notably for accountability, under the FEB department, especially Public Financial Accounting (Akuntansi Keuangan Publik – AKP) as the village economy driving force, UT and LOFA will follow this collaboration more intensively then. To be known, there is a huge opportunity to enhance the competencies of village officials and village-owned enterprises (Badan Usaha Milik Desa – BUMDes) throughout Indonesia by learning at UT.
During the occasion, Dr. Lee appreciated the social capital implementation through Kebhinekaan (Diversity) between Indonesian tribes which is interesting to study together. Furthermore, Dr. Meirani, the Dean of FEB of UT, conveyed that the Accountability Workshop for Public Financial Management will be organized inviting the source person from LOFA to expand the perception of the UT academic community.
Finally, by organizing the joint discussion after the MoU between UT and LOFA, and the evaluation of pre-PSIC 2024, hope to bring a positive impact to the competency enhancement of Indonesia Human Resources, as well as for the image escalation to be more recognizable in Indonesia and abroad. Moreover, Synergy and an international network between UT and LOFA are hoped to emphasize effective management and public financial accountability.
