Logo of Kampus Merdeka. Souce: KalderaNews.com

Semarang – The Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program seemed to attract the attention of most Diponegoro University Communication Sciences students to participate in it.

On this occasion, students can feel the atmosphere of learning outside the original university for approximately one semester. Student activities in the MBKM program during this period can be converted into semester credit units (SKS) at the original university.

To guide the credit conversion system in detail, the Communication Studies Program at Diponegoro University took the initiative to hold an “Info Session: Merdeka Learning” on Tuesday (3/8) online through the Microsoft Teams platform. All lecturers and students who were accepted into the Merdeka Learning program also attended this Info Session.

 

Kampus Merdeka Internship Program Assessment Criteria

Rouli Manalu as the Head of the Undip Communication Studies Program stated that the credits that can be converted by the MBKM internship program are a maximum of 20-21 credits.

“Every student who participates in the Internship Program of Kampus Merdeka will be given a certificate explaining the conversion of grades. They will be guided by one party from the company (supervisor) and one party from the campus for one semester,” explained Rouli.

She also said that all forms of learning administration must be submitted by students in the form of daily activity log books which include weekly activity outputs, monthly reports, monthly outputs, and final reports to the company. Then, to the home university, students are required to do weekly reading and weekly review assignments which will be submitted on Undip’s online lecture platform (Kulon).

Furthermore, Rouli conveyed the weight of the internship assessment which was divided into 50% from the campus (in the form of assignments in Kulon) and 50% from partner companies as internship supervisors. The partner company is authorized to propose what criteria will be used as an assessment. The partner company and the campus will then discuss further so that a final agreement on the assessment criteria is found.

“We have an interest in assessing the quality of what you do off-campus as a value for you and knowing what you do. This is because it is the campus that will provide the bachelor’s degree, not the place where you do your internship. Therefore, the campus must know what you are doing,” said Rouli.

SKS Conversion System for the Independent Teaching Campus Program

Although the Directorate General of Higher Education (Ditjen Dikti) said that 20 credits could be converted from this program, the study program party stated that only a maximum of 9 credits could be converted.

“Undip Communication Studies does not focus on graduates who can teach, but journalism and strategic PR. So, the campus can only convert 9 credits, different from teacher education or other majors which are internal in the teaching field, maybe more credits can be converted,” explained Rouli.

The assessment system will also resemble an internship assessment system where several criteria have been set by the campus.

 

Student Exchange Activities and Entrepreneurship

Entering the second year of college, the class of 2020 can also participate in Kampus Merdeka activities in the Free Learning Student Exchange (inter-institutional) and Entrepreneurship (non-institutional) programs.

In the Student Exchange program, participants will choose courses in the recipient’s college major, but the study program says that the courses taken must be similar to the courses at Undip to be converted.

“If you choose a course at the receiving university but there is no similarity in the courses in the study program, then it cannot be recognized and certainly cannot be converted to credits,” said Rouli.

Therefore, the receiving university needs to provide a semester learning plan (RPS) so that the original university can see in detail the learning so that it can be determined whether it can be converted or not. This is different from converting to elective courses which would be more flexible.

 

Submission of Proposal for Credit Conversion

Students who take part in the Internship program and Teaching Campus programs are required to submit a proposal regarding the activities and courses that they expect to submit in the value conversion credit. After that, each student who takes part in the program will be given a certificate regarding the courses that will be converted later.

“This also applies to students in the Independent Learning Student Exchange program, which is to provide information on courses obtained from campus partners to study programs,” concluded Rouli.

Writer: Almira Khairunnisa

Reporter: Sanita Sitinjak/Salsabila Febriyanti

Editor: Annisa Qonita Andini

 

Source: komunikasi.fisip.undip.ac.id