Nachrowi: Beware of Mental Disorders in New College Graduates
By: Prof. Nachrowi Djalal Nachrowi, Ph.D.
DEPOK – (3/10/2020) The above was stated by Prof. Nachrowi, Chair of the UI Academic Senate (SA UI) and also Chair of the Academic Senate Council of State Universities for Legal Entities throughout Indonesia (MSA PTN BH), at the MSA PTN BH Plenary Session hosted by Airlangga University on (3/10/2020).
The MSA PTN BH Plenary Session was opened by the Minister of Research and Technology / Head of BRIN (National Research and Innovation Agency) and attended by nearly 150 participants consisting of Heads and Members of the Academic Senate from 11 Legal Entitiy State Universities (UI, ITB, UGM, IPB , ITS, UNAIR, UNDIP, UNPAD, UPI, USU, UNHAS) and other invitees. The main agenda in this event was to discuss Strengthening the Relevance of Research and Curriculum for Higher Education with the World of Work during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The MSA PTN BH Plenary Session raised three main issues. First, on Strengthening the Relevance of Higher Education Research and Curriculum with the World of Work during and after the Covid-19 Pandemic. This topic was raised with consideration that with the industrial revolution and the Covid-19 pandemic, the world of higher education is forced to make continuous adjustments to their curriculum. The meeting also discussed research carried out in tertiary institutions to meet the needs of the ever-changing world of work, especially in this current and post-pandemic era.
In addition, with the pandemic that forces us to keep our distance and minimize crowds, the world of higher education needs to adjust the way of teaching in higher education, from the offline / face-to-face method to the online / virtual method. Whether we realize and recognize it or not, this online teaching method is not as effective as face-to-face methods. Therefore, in this MSA Plenary Session, the second topic raised was on Online Learning Strategies in safeguarding the competence and readiness of alumni in entering the world of work. Concretely, we need to find strategies to prevent the decrease of competence of higher education alumni due to online learning.
We need to be aware that due to this pandemic, a lot of economic activities have stalled and even stopped. Lots of companies that suffer losses and as a result reduce their activities by laying off their workforce. Can we imagine how stressful it will be for new college graduates who need a new place to work and at the same time almost all companies are laying off their workforce. As a result, the waiting period for new graduates is getting longer and more uncertain. With this phenomenon, the MSA Plenary Session also raised the third topic regarding the need for mental health competencies (including mental disorders) in dealing with an uncertain world of work by inviting an expert in mental illness to anticipate the large number of college graduates who will experience mental disorders and how to mitigate this issue.
With the Independent Campus Concept, universities need to collaborate to facilitate their students and encourage them to take courses that they are interested in at the universities that they have chosen. Student independence can be obtained if the university is willing to open its doors for students from other universities. Thus, the concept of an independent campus changes the paradigm of competition between universities into collaboration between universities. This collaboration can be expanded not only at the level of lecture administration but at the joint-supervision level in student research, as well as in the research of the lecturers.
On the other hand, with the development of science, the dividing line between one scientific discipline and another becomes increasingly unclear. On the contrary, the relationship between one discipline and another has been increasingly linked. As a result, collaborative research between the Health Sciences Group/Cluster, the Science and Technology Cluster, and the Humanities Cluster is increasingly inevitable. This phenomenon also leads to a shift in the competition paradigm towards a collaboration paradigm.
From these two facts, the habit of peering at each other’s activities at each university needs to be changed to becoming open to collaboration. We expect the Academic Senate Council to facilitate collaboration between PTN BH, both in the field of course budgeting and research. Thankfully, in the pandemic era which resulted in an economic recession, PTN BH can focus its research and innovation to accelerate the discovery of the Corona vaccine and jumpstarting economic recovery. (hjtp)
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