Jakarta - One of the Foreign Universities partners in the Indonesian International Student Mobility Award program, known as IISMA in America, University of California Davis or UC Davis, had the opportunity to have a Courtesy Meeting with the Ministry of Education and Culture. It was an honor for the UC Davis Delegation to meet directly with top management at the Ministry of Education and Culture on October 14, 2022. Present at the occasion were Jacob Havier as Director of Global Affairs, Anneli Adams as Associate Dean, Michele as Provost UC Davis who were received by the Special Staff of the Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (SKM) Pramoda Dei Sudarmo and accompanied by A.N. Jessica SKM Expert, IISMA Program Chair Rachmat Sriwijaya and IISMA America Coordinator Lulu Farida in the Mendikbudristek meeting room, as well as via teleconference attended by Minister of Education and Research and Technology Expert Staff Jony Oktavian and acting Director General of Higher Education Nizam.

Jacob expressed his gratitude to IISMA as a bridge for the development of a collaborative network between UC Davis and universities in Indonesia. "Previously we only had 5 (five) partner universities in Indonesia and it was almost just a Sleeping MoU, but with IISMA we have 10 new partner universities that are committed to implementing activities in 2023. We will meet the Indonesian Islamic University, General University Soedirman, Yogyakarta Muhammadiyah University, Semarang State University, Sebelas Maret University, Ahmad Dahlan University, Duta Wacana Christian University, Airlangga University, and Gadjah Mada University on 17th October 2022 to explore further cooperation," said Jacob.

The Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka Policy is one of the breakthroughs of the Minister of Education and Research and Technology Nadiem Makarim. Acting Director General of Higher Education, Nizam, IISMA is the only MBKM flagship program that sends thousands of students to carry out activities off campus in different study programs at foreign universities. "In the past two years, the Chancellors of Higher Education have always mentioned the achievement of the number of students participating in IISMA as part of the college's achievements," said Nizam when opening the meeting with the UC Davis delegation.

UC Davis is 1 (one) of 6 (six) tertiary institutions in the United States that has become an organizing partner for the IISMA program since 2021. IISMA provides full scholarships for all awardees and to get this scholarship, they must compete with 7501 applicants in 2022. IISMA Program Head Rachmat Sriwijaya said that this year we only sent 1155 participants to 72 host universities.

The support from the American Embassy for IISMA's activities was also felt by IISMA. Rachmat Sriwijaya had the opportunity to take part in the lunch meeting organized by the US Embassy on October 13, 2022 at the Hyatt Park Hotel with 23 American Universities and had the opportunity to introduce IISMA at the Connect and Collaboration Forum organized by the US Embassy and USAID on October 18 at the Century Park Hotel which was attended by 10 universities from America and 58 Indonesian universities. "This is certainly an important record for the IISMA program to continue to increase the number of partners with quality that will continue to be maintained. We were also asked to take part in an exhibition organized by the US Embassy next Saturday, 22nd October at the Hyatt Park," said Rachmat.