The Management Study Program, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) hosted Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) Partnership Workshop in Syariah Hotel Solo, Saturday, January 7th, 2023. The workshop was attended by all Management Study Program Partners, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) for Surakarta Office, MSMEs partners, Lecturers, and students.

In his remarks, Dr. Atmaji, MM, as the Head of the Management Study Program FEB UNS, states that the study program welcomed the MBKM program, initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbud Ristek), by preparing various supporting programs. Responding to the MBKM program, the Management Study Program has designed supporting programs for the students interested in participating in MBKM.

“Alhamdulillah, when MBKM was initiated, our Study Program reacted swiftly, thus, when the Minister of Education finally launched MBKM, Management Study Program could directly participate, even though only in one program, the student exchange program. For the following semester, however, our students participated in eight MBKM programs,” he reveals.

The eight programs are student exchange, internship, teaching assistance at education institutions, research, humanities project, entrepreneurship, independent project or study, and village development program or thematic student community program (KKNT). Students participating in the MBKM program will receive 20 credits for the one-semester MBKM program.

Not only studying theories, in the MBKM program, students can get involved in field activities and interact with the community according to their selected MBKM program. Students can learn about how the community interacts and how to get involved in business interaction and networking.

Higher Education Institutions cannot implement the MBKM program independently because it needs a partnership with various parties. Considering this, Dr. Atmaji also thanked all parties supporting MBKM implementation in the Study Program, particularly to Surakarta Kadin Office, for providing the opportunity for the industrial internship in the Solo Great Sale last year. He also thanked 16 MSMEs for supervising the students during the MBKM program, especially for business consulting for the last two months.

This workshop also marked the end of the MBKM business consulting and industrial internship program at the Surakarta Kadin Office.

The Head of the Kompetisi Kampus Merdeka Program (PKKM) for Management Study Program, Dr. Joko Suyono, M.Si., reported the implementation of PSM PKKM. The report states that the MBKM Program was strengthened through the PKKM programs. “The Study Program has entered its second year. In the first year, the Study Program developed the existing supporting laboratory and Project Based Learning program. While in this second year, the program will develop a virtual laboratory for data science,” he states.

Further, Dr. Joko Suyono explains that the main objective of MBKM is to improve the graduates’ competency, lecturers’ competency, and curriculum design for the Study Program. There are five programs proposed by the Management Study Program, including the development of a student learning platform, digital finance innovation development, graduates’ competency improvement, student entrepreneurship activity, and development of the study program reputation.

The workshop continued with testimonials from the partners’ representatives regarding the implementation of the MBKM program, followed by an award session for the best team in SGS 2022, as well as a Memorandum of Understanding signatory for the next MBKM Program.