TEMPO.CO, Yogyakarta - Gadjah Mada University's (UGM) rectorate has expressed its readiness to support the implementation of Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim's independent campus policy.

The policy that the minister recently announced is a new learning pattern in Indonesia's higher education, UGM Rector Panut Mulyono said in a statement that Antara received in Yogyakarta on Sunday.

Therefore, in meeting the policy's demanded goals, UGM would improve and make a necessary adaptation to such things as curriculum, teaching staff, and information system, he said.

"I hope that UGM will become a leader and trendsetter in the transformation of Education 4.0," Panut Mulyono said.

The minister's independent campus policy has paved the way for the university students in Indonesia to have rights to take courses outside their major program, and for shifting the definition of credit units.

Meanwhile, the UGM authority has translated the concept of freedom to learn by giving those responsible for managing study programs a greater room for innovation, Head of UGM's Innovation and Academic Research Center Hatma Suryatmojo said.

The innovation in managing the study programs was demanded for improving the students' global competencies through various latest courses offered to them, he said.

Among the offered courses are the ones related to digital transformation; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), SDGs, soft skills, and 21st Century Competencies, Suryatmojo said.

The freedom to learn has also provided the university authority with opportunities for developing internship and immersion programs by collaborating with professionals, UGM's graduates, practitioners, and UGM's strategic partners.

"Thus, Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim's policies on freedom to learn and independent campus are regarded as an opportunity and relevant to what the UGM's curriculum team has been working," he said.

In response to the demands of changing era at local, regional, and global levels, the UGM authority has actually made continuous efforts to make a necessary adaptation and innovation for its curricular.

In 2016, UGM, for instance, launched a framework of curriculum foundation to be adopted as a guideline for developing curricular in all of its study programs, he added.

Antara noted that the implementation of Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim's freedom to learn policy in compulsory education focuses on student performance assessments, classroom teaching plans, and school zoning.

ANTARA