Hendy Fatchurrohman and Charina, students of MPPDAS batch 2014 did joint student program in ITT, TH Koeln in September 2015 – February 2016. The program is funded by Center Natural Resources and Development (CNRD), as a part of CNDR’s programs, involving 13 universities around the globe.
“As an MPPDAS student, I had a chance to be involved in several CNRD’s events such as Joint student Project, Eco-DRR Training, and Semester exchange. One of the most remarkable moment as MPPDAS student is when I awarded semester exchange scholarship in ITT, TH Koeln”
CNRD students learned hydrology in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Programme, concerning on water resource issues such as water supply, public health and sanitation, and water scarcity and drought. The program also describe developed country’s perspective in encountering disaster events, especially flood. Students were devided into several working group based on their expertise. Hendy’s group learned Manage Aquifer Recharge for Groundwater Resources to understand comprehensively groundwater resource problems and management in a certain area. The program enhance not only student’s knowledge, but also student’s social ability for dealing with other people with different culture and background.
The program condusted site visit to water treatment plan as a part of Public Health and Sanitation module. Field trip and site visit provide good practice managements to be shown to students, so they may enrich their knowledge by directly observing the management practice (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. Waste water treatment plan in the country side of The City of Cologne
CNRD Scholarship gave many knowledge, experiences and networks. Sophisticated, well organized and integrated academic systems in ITT, TH Koln is very good to be applied in Universitas Gadjah Mada. Many foreign students and experienced lecturers lead into a very nice class atmosphere and interactive discussion. This program open big opportunities for student who want to develop their knowledge and skills. It should be sustainable by keeping on expand their network, with better coordination among universities that involved in CNRD.