The MTI Fasilkom UI study program (Master in Information and Technology) offers a double degree program in collaboration with National Taiwan University of Science & Technology (NTUST) in Taiwan. The double degree program runs since 2016 until todays and has sent 7 students taking double degree program of MTI-NTUST. This year (2018), there will be additional of 3 students of MTI UI joining the double degree to NTUST; they are Valeria Cynthia Dewi, Wahyu Tri Anggoro and Zamroji Hariyanto. Majority of alumni and students of the double degree are granted full or partial scholarships from the NTUST. The MTI program coordinator, Betty Purwandari, Ph.D., initiated a sharing session by alumni who have completed study of the MTI Fasilkom UI – NTUST double degree program, the alumni can share knowledge and experience to the students who in short time will depart and join the NTUST Program in Taiwan.
A number of alumni attended the double degree program NTUST, among them were Rifka Widyastuti (MTI 2016), Arthur Holong Parningotan (MTI 2014) and Muhammad Ridha (MTI 2015). According to Rifka (the fourth-year double degree program taker), many conveniences were experienced when she was undergoing her study in Taiwan, one example is that students from Indonesia, who studied there, always supported one another, specifically in adjusting into culture in Taiwan. Arthur Holong (the first-year double degree program taker) was motivating students who were about to depart to Taiwan in a sharing session about experience and study during his time undertaking the double degree program in Taiwan.
In addition, the alumni of double degree program MTI-NTUST also shared that language was not a great barrier to Indonesian students. “When it comes to study in classes, the applied language instruction of English.” However, there was a time when in a day, students need to apply the local language or Mandarin. The interesting part is that faculty staff provide a free lesson of Mandarin for daily conversation purposes,” added Rifka. Rifka mentioned that she was not only getting along with Taiwanese and Indonesian students, but she was also mingling with other international students from the European Countries, who were undertaking the same double degree or else fulltime master degree programs.
On the academic side, Muhammad Ridha (the third-year double degree taker) emphasized that new students are required to pay attention to subjects they are about to take in NTUST-Taiwan so that the subjects will not be repeated or as same as the ones they were getting from UI. Subjects linked to the Information Technology (IT) are more available in the list in odd semester which started in September, as compared to February or in even semester. MTI-NTUST alumni benefitted from choosing the double degree program, such as when students are in Universitas Indonesia (UI), they are equipped by practicalities, and in NTUST they are strengthened in the research part. Another interesting thing that helps students in journey of studying the double degree in NTUST is the way professors guide their international students with sense of cooperation and caring in their study and research processes. The obtained experiences to the Indonesian double degree program alumni from studying in Master of Information Technology in UI to NTUST Taiwan essentially help them in their continuing career in Indonesia.