Depok, September 24th 2023. Saturday afternoon (23/9), Universitas Indonesia (UI) held a third day graduation ceremony for the Even Semester 2022/2023 specifically for postgraduate graduates at Balairung, UI Depok Campus. This graduation ceremony was attended by 3,051 graduates from the professional, specialist, master’s and doctoral levels. Among the graduates present, there was the Chairman of the Depok City Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRD), Ir. H. Teuku Muhammad Yusufsyah Putra, M.Si., who graduated from the UI School of Strategic and Global Studies (SKSG). The graduation procession was led by the Rector of UI, Prof. Ari Kuncoro, S.E., M.A., Ph.D., attended by the Chair of the Board of Professors (DGB), Chair of the Academic Senate (SA), Chair of the Board of Trustees (MWA), University Secretary, Vice Rectors, Deans, School Directors, and Director of Vocational Education Programs.
“Alhamdulillah, today, I attended the graduation ceremony at the Universitas Indonesia which was very well organized. Hopefully, UI alumni can be useful and beneficial to the nation and state. Of course, I am sure that the skills possessed by the graduates can be used to develop the Indonesian nation. I am proud to be a student at the Universitas Indonesia. Let’s always be better, always be in high spirit,” said Ir. H. Teuku Muhammad Yusufsyah Putra. He raised a research topic regarding Depok City government policy and community participation in the Old Depok Cultural Heritage area.
Among the parents and spouses who came to the third day of the graduation ceremony, Member of the DPR RI (Period 2019-2024) for the Central Java V Electoral District Aria Bima was present as the parent of RA Yashinta Sekarwangi Mega who is a graduate of the Communication Science Postgraduate Program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) UI. In a short interview, Aria Bima expressed his pride at his daughter’s graduation and being able to attend his graduation ceremony.
“I am proud of UI’s tagline which is not limited to only ‘Indonesia’ but also global. UI graduates are certainly ready to serve the country. This is a call that in the future, Indonesia needs intellectuals and the UI campus has a long history of various political, economic and even technological movements. As a parent who has a child who graduated with a master’s degree from UI, I feel proud and honored,” said Aria.
This pride is certainly not only felt by Putra and Aria. At today’s graduation ceremony it was announced that there were 44 postgraduate graduates who graduated with a perfect Summa Cumlaude Grade Point Average (GPA) of 4. dr. Luthfi Saiful Arif, M.Pd.Ked., from the Faculty of Medicine (FK) and Meriell Jade E. Tendean, S.T., M.Si., from FISIP were two of the 44 UI graduates who achieved perfect scores.
During his lecture period, dr. Luthfi has scored several achievements, including winning the Best Poster award at WONCA APRC 2022 in Bali with the SEANUTS Indonesia team. Apart from that, 3 of his research posters passed in the Nutrition and Growth event, London in 2023. He said, apart from diligently reading books and journals, this achievement was also achieved thanks to frequent discussions with his classmates regarding medical education issues, which allow him to have more points of view and solution options.
In his thesis, dr. Luthfi conducted research that focused on developing Virtual Reality (VR) for use in medical education. In this research, he explored the things that need to be prepared before deciding to develop VR as a learning medium on a particular topic.
Meanwhile, Meriell, who also graduated with a perfect score, in her thesis conducted research on the metaverse in a religious context. “I observed an interesting situation where during the pandemic, several churches in Indonesia started using metaverse technology as a medium of worship. Therefore, I tried to conduct a survey of church members who had attended services in the metaverse, regarding their response to the use of this technology in the context of communication,” said Meriell.
