Semarang | In 2018, the achivement of Unimus’ lecturers in receiving research and community service grants is satisfying. It is proven by the rank of Unimus among other private higher education institutions in Central Java Province. Unimus takes the 4th place on provincial level and 5th place among other Muhammadiyah higher education institutions throughout Indonesia (177 institutions). However, it doesn’t make Unimus feel too satisfied because Unimus always wants to improve the quality and quantity of funded researches and community services in the future. Hence, all units at Unimus are simultanously making efforts optimally. One of them is the Institute of Research and COmmunity Service (LPPM) what continuously encourages the lecturers to enhance their researches and community service programs.
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On Wednesday, May 30, 2018 in the Nursing Research Center (NRC) building, the Institute of Research and Community Service at Universitas Muhammadiyah Semarang held a workshop on DRPM-funded community service proposal writing. Being the expert speaker was Dr. Suparni Setyowati Rahayu, M.Si., a national reviewer in Community Service Division of the Directorate of Research and Community Service at the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education (Kemristekdikti). She motivated the participating lecturers to be keener in conducting researches and community service. “There is a strong connection between higher education and community empowerment. In the future, the downstream of research results in a higher education institution should make impacts in the development in the society,” she stated.
Dozens of lecturers at Universitas Muhammadiyah Semarang attended the workshop. The lecturer at Polines also told the need of strategies to accellerate the community empowerment as well as synergy between academicians at higher education institutions and stakeholders related to the community empowerment. As for community service, she advised the participants to not only focus in Semarang but also in surrounding areas such as Demak, Jepara, Pati, Batang, Grobogan, and other regencies. “Potential issues that can be chosen as an object of research or community service include education, health, conservation, gender, children protection, food and energy,” Suparni added.
On the occasion, Dr. Sri Darmawati, M.Si., the Vice Rector I of Unimus, expects the participannts to be encouraged to create quality scientific works after attending the workshop. “For those whose proposal were rejected to be funded can be corrected by Mrs. Suparni. Meanwhile, those who haven’t submitted by proposal can get knowledge taht can be used to create research or community service proposal later,” she said.