Yesterday, on 30 May 2021, around
11:30am, I attended a webinar meeting organized by the Department of Urban and
Regional Planning, UNIKOM Bandung, the university from which I obtained my bachelor
degree in Urban and Regional Planning. UNIKOM is one of the emerging private universities
in Indonesia. It was established in 2000, in the millennium era. The university
believes that the information technology (IT) will be the motor for transforming the
way we live. The importance of IT has been in fact proven today that we can’t
live without technology. Without going to Bandung, I could see my old friends,
and see them talk like on this webinar.
That is the simple rational why the university sets out IT as the foundation for every field of study. Applied IT
programs are the basic subjects required for all the first year students. Frankly,
prior my departure from Dili to Bandung I barely even touched computer and had
no much experience of using Internet. In 2003, my first year, I was faced with
software applications such as Microsoft office, web-based applications (now
known as coding?). From this beginning I learned how to create email accounts,
and started using urban planning related professional software such as AutoCAD,
Arch Map, and some other. I created this blog back in 2009 with the purpose of
communicating my thoughts with wider audience. The knowledge gained from UNIKOM
equipped me to create this blog because I used to study HTML in the website
making class, I’ve forgot the exact name of the subject. I prefer to communicate
my ideas and thoughts to friends via this blog instead of Facebook or Twitter.
Back to the webinar thing. I was not contacted officially by the department though, but a friend via whatsup chat. Even so I could not refuse to attend because I have been feeling nostalgic with the campus, the lecturers, and old friends. I was thinking the timing would come for me to visit my campus, not only that but seeing old friends attending so that we could tell old stories, and even share future predictions for our professional lives. I understand that everyone is now busy with life and has scattered all around islands. It might be difficult, but again IT makes it possible to realize this kind of reunion, and finally it happened yesterday.
Progress by progress has been made
since I left the university. What made me so proud of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning is that almost all the old lecturers are still maintaining. The university is
growing, and is getting competitive in the higher education arena; therefore it
is legit for them to stay. Ibu Romeiza, the then Chair of the Department of
Urban Planning, one tough career woman who I have ever met, came back onboard leading
the department after she finished her doctorate studies at Bandung Institute of
Technology, one of the top universities in Indonesia. Another, my dearest
supervisor for my undergraduate thesis study, and my always-be-there-mentor
during my endeavor to pursue master’s study in the USA, Ibu Lia, is now the
Dean of Faculty of Design. I did not know if the other best old lecturers were
present in the webinar, but of course I could not be prouder by having all of
them crossed my path during my time at UNIKOM.
The webinar was meant to greet alumni members, but also to share planners’ tips among each other. One topic that caught my interest is about the tips to get a job quickly after graduating. For me, even though IT is so advanced that anybody could get information anywhere, go out and meet people is still very important. Some jobs are not posted on websites, instead they are told from mouth to mouth in a small circle of people. Therefore, if you happen to be in that circle, the chance is you can get the job vacancy information quickly because you could be told directly. If you wait for the vacancy announcement on a website, you would be waiting forever. Also, as planners, we work with multiple professions. Expanding your network with different professions is very important. Somebody from another profession may need an integrated planner for, not necessarily a spatial planning project, but maybe a feasibility study, or environmental impact study which planners are trained to do as well. So, go out there, meet people, and share your contacts to them.
Also another thing that I think planners, particularly UNIKOM graduates should keep in mind is that the current global movement has changed. I understand that Indonesian language could be the ASEAN working language given the percentage of the speakers is huge compared with other languages. Let’s say Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei combined, and of course Timor-Leste as well, it will represent the biggest portion. However, learning English language is not less important. ASEAN free movement will require professionals to move across countries. Urban population is growing, ASEAN represents the trend. It means there is a huge challenge for the ASEAN countries to think on how to make cities a better place to live in. Eventually more planners needed to work on that.
Well, all in all, the webinar held by
the Department of Urban Planning, particularly when the Rector attended, is a
good opportunity for alumni to share tips. I am proud to be part of UNIKOM’s alumni community. Thus, we would like to hear sometimes about how the university is
doing. If alumni lose contact about the development of the university, and the
Department of Urban and Regional Planning itself, it would lead people to make
some uninformed conclusion whether the university is doing fine or struggling. The university is in fact progressing so much; I could see the Urban and Regional
Planning Department has got the best and upgraded faculty members. Thus, the planning graduates are going to be more prepared than the alumni like us.
Future planners are not going to be for Indonesia only, but for ASEAN. This is
a heavy standard but possible.
**Hope this gives you an inspiration.
