Director of Education ITS, Dr. Eng. Siti Machmudah, S.T., M.Eng., while giving a speech in front of PMM students at Seminar Room, the 2nd floor – ITS Library

ITS Campus News – SSupporting the notion of Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program from the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) has designed The Nusantara Module for Pertukaran Mahasiswa Merdeka (PMM) students which aimed to recognize closer to Majapahit Culture. The opening of this program was held at ITS Library, last Monday (29/8).

Director of Education ITS, Dr. Eng. Siti Machmudah, S.T., M.Eng., said that this year ITS has accepted 108 PMM students from 37 universities in Indonesia. This program is oriented to produce high-quality graduates, collaborate with other university partners, produce learning innovations, and increase understanding of diversity appreciation in Indonesia based on The Nusantara Module.

PMM students in ITS attending the opening of Pertukaran Mahasiswa Merdeka (PMM) Program

Machmudah, as she is familiarly known, revealed that PMM students will follow the contents of The Nusantara module. The module will also explore Majapahit civilization by understanding and actualizing Majapahit civilization culture itself as a part of national identity and it is hoped to be able to reconstruct the traces of Majapahit civilization. “By having this modul, students are expected to be motivated to explore science and civilization in their respective regions,” he said.

According to the lecturer of Chemical Engineering Department, The Nusantara Module was designed by five lecturers and five students of ITS. So that for the next semester, PMM students will take part in a series of cultural introduction activities from the module and carry out lectures as usual. Technically, every Monday PMM students will hold meetings, besides every Saturday and Sunday they will be divided into five groups to carry out other activities.

There are four main types of activities. The first activity is diversity which was carried out 14 times during one semester of the program. This activity included visiting and identifying problems at Trowulan Museum, artifact buildings, medicinal forest, Mount Kelud, and Marine (maritime) Laboratory. “This activity is divided into exploration of buildings, maritime, spices, and disasters” he said.

The next activity is inspiration which is aimed to stimulate inspiration for students obtained from conversations and discussions with regional inspirational figures. Machmudah explained that students would explore The History of Majapahit more deeply by meeting with experts, one of them is an epigrapher, to learn the language and letters used at that time and study from Trowulan Museum.

Then the third activity is reflection which was carried out seven times during one semester of the program. PMM students will present the results of their visits and activities in the form of posters, video vlogs, and reports. The last activity is social contribution. In this activity, PMM students will display their work at archipelago festival and in a series activity of ITS 62nd Anniversary.

Director of Education ITS, Dr. Eng. Siti Machmudah, S.T., M.Eng., with ITS executive board and PMM students at ITS Rectorate Building

Machmudah said, there are many things that Indonesian people should recognize about Majapahit, because the values that are applied in Indonesia today are the values which has already existed before in Majapahit era. Like the red and white flag from The Book of Negara Kertagama and Bhinneka Tunggal Ika from The Book of Sutasoma. She hopes that PMM students can undergo lectures at ITS smoothly and increase their sense of nationalism. “Hopefully, this program is useful for them,” he concluded. (ITS PR)