Yogyakarta (24/11) – Increasing cultural information between countries is important in today’s global era where social interaction is becoming increasingly global in all aspects. Realizing the importance of this, the International Program of Government Affairs and Administration at the University of Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (IGOV UMY) conducted a Cultural Exchange program with Exchange Students from universities in neighboring countries, namely Maejo University, Thailand. In general, the purpose of this activity is to increase collaboration and interaction between students and more than that to introduce each other to the culture of each country and university. This year, activities are focused on introducing culture in Indonesia by making several visits to several cultural sites and tourist attractions in Yogyakarta.
The first day of Cultural Exchange activities will be held on Wednesday, 23 November 2022 with the aim of The Palace of Yogyakarta, Fort Vredeburg Museum, and Taman Sari Yogyakarta. This activity involved 5 students consisting of 3 batches of 2022 IGOV students who became buddies and 2 students from Maejo University, Thailand. Just like Cultural Exchange activities in general, they can find out how Indonesia’s historical heritage, especially Yogyakarta, and the culture of the empire which may not be much different from their home country, namely, Thailand, through a visit to the place.
In general, the first day of Cultural Exchange activities ran smoothly and was able to provide many benefits, both from a cultural and academic point of view. Culturally, this activity can make this activity able to introduce local culture more intensively and interactively. Meanwhile, from an academic point of view, this activity was able to strengthen cooperation between universities from Thailand and Indonesia to produce quality collaborative works for the future. (ARP)
