Indonesian citizens, particularly students, are demanded to follow globalization, indeed ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) has officially been announced since 31 December 2015. Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) encouraged the students to have field trip and to learn cultural development of other countries. On 11-18 January 2016, 91 students of UMY went to Singapore and Malaysia. They were students of International Relations, Governmental Studies, and Faculty of Engineering.

In an interview at Public Relations and Protocol Affairs on Monday (25/1), Chief of the field trip Dian Naren told the reason why visited both countries. Malaysia was considered as a country having good Islamic culture in ASEAN. “While, Singapore is well known for its punctual and disciplined culture,” Dian told.

Besides visiting tourism places in Malaysia and Singapore, the students also went to Proton Company of Malaysia, ASEAN Secretariat Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia, and Embassy of Republic of Indonesia to Malaysia. “The tourism places were chosen since they were in line with the students’ department. We also visited National University of Singapore,” she informed.

Additionally, Vice Chancellor I of UMY as well as the person in charge of the field trip Dr. Ir. Gunawan Budiyanto, M.P. conveyed that the field trip aimed at broadening students’ views in order to be in line with UMY’s tagline, ‘Unggul and Islami’ as well as ‘Muda Mendunia’. “It was expected that the students could learn new knowledge and culture of other countries to confront globalization so that they can compete in international level,” he wished.