It was the pride of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) to join an International forum as AUAP (Association of Universities of Asia and the Pacific). Moreover, two of UMY’s leaders were chosen as an executive member and the Chairman of Country Chapter AUAP. They were the Rector of UMY, Prof. Dr. Bambang Cipto, M.A. as the Executive Board Member of AUAP, and the Vice Chancellor III, Sri Atmaja P. Rosyidi, S.T., M.Sc.Eng., Ph.D. PE., as the Chairman Committee of Country Chapter AUAP from Indonesia.
The Rector and Vice Chancellor were elected as an executive member and the chairman committee after international conference of AUAP on the 15th – 17th of November 2014. The theme of the international conference was “Asian-Pacific Sustainable Development through Entrepreneurship Empowered Knowledge Sharing”. It was carried out in University of Tehran, Islamic Republica of Iran.
The other representatives of UMY attending the conference were the Vice Chancellor I, Dr. Ir. Gunawan Budiyanto, M.P., the University Secretary, Ir. Nafi Ananda Utama, M.S., and the Head of International Relation and Cooperation Office, Tony K. Hariadi, S.T., M.T. It was only UMY and Surabaya University (UBAYA) that could participate as the Indonesian representatives.
Being met in his office on Monday (8/12), Tony K. Hariadi stated that it was not only Indonesian universities joining the AUAP in Iran, but also 40 other universities became the members of AUAP. “In the AUAP in Iran, there were only two universities from Indonesia which were UMY and AUAP,” he told. Tony explained that, besides the huge activities in the AUAP, UMY took the occasion to sign MoU with five universities which were University of Tehran, Alzahra University, Tehran Institute of Technology, Universitas Our Lady of Fatima Filipina, dan University of the Cordilleras Filipina. “The signature of MoU with five universities was still dealing with academic aspect, for instance, student mobility, staff exchange, researches, and others,” he expounded.
In the eleventh AUAP in University of Tehran, the agenda, according to Tony, was not only seminars, but also the organizer alteration of AUAP. “In the alteration, Dr. Shawn from Sias International University was chosen as the President that previously was from Universitas Kebangsaan Malaysia. Then, the Rector of UMY was also elected as one of the board members.
