Graduate students from the Faculty of Public Health (FKM) received an International Publication Quality Improvement (PKPI) scholarship for the Master towards Doctoral Degree program specified for Excellent Undergraduates (PMDSU) in 2021 based on the results issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology.
The announcement was officially announced by the Dean of the Faculty of Public Health Universitas Hasanuddin (Unhas), Dr. Aminuddin Syam, SKM, M.Kes., M.Med.Ed., on Saturday (14/8).
“We should be thankful because four of the seven PMDSU students of Unhas passed the interview test to enrol in the PKPI/Sandwich Like scholarship. They are students from FKM Unhas. Two students will go to Cornell University in the United States. The other two students will study in Seoul, South Korea,” explained Aminuddin Syam.
Dr. Aminuddin Syam hugely hopes more PMDSU students will be admitted at the world’s best-ranked universities in the nearest future to open up more opportunities to collaborate between the Faculty of Public Health and worldwide reputed universities.
The Head of the Public Health Sciences Study Program of Unhas for Doctoral Degree, Prof. Dr. Ridwan Amiruddin, SKM, M.Kes., MSc.PH congratulated the students on their successes in getting the scholarship.
“This is such a good opportunity to study at the world’s top-ranked universities to develop publications in Q1 journals and establish research networks with colleagues abroad,” said Ridwan.
Prof. dr. Veni Hadju, M.Sc., Ph.D., a program supervisor, said that the requirements to enrol in the scholarship were not easy. Students must be registered as PMDSU awardees and have an LoA (Letter of Acceptance) from the destination University.
In addition, students are obliged to have passed the dissertation proposal, have a letter of recommendation from the promoter at the home university, write a draft/manuscript of a publication plan that the promoter has approved, and make a brief proposal of activities while being a student in the destination country. Students are also required to have at least a valid TOEFL ITP score of 550 or an IELTS score of 5.5.
The students who passed the scholarship qualification are Hasan Basri, Rahayu Nurul Reski, Annisa Utami Rauf, and Ratna Dwi Puji Astuti.
According to Rahayu, the PKPI program is a program from DIKTI specially intended for PMDSU scholarship awardees to improve the quality of international publications, which provides the awardee of every batch opportunity to enrol in the program.
Annisa Utami Rauf, one of the program’s awardees, said that she had previously communicated with several prospective supervisors, which received approval and response from Hanyang University and SNU (South Korea).
“Because the applicants of this scholarship are required to obtain an LoA when initially registering, I immediately made a list of researchers who could be possible to collaborate with and communicate in accordance with the topic of my dissertation,” said Annisa.
Meanwhile, Ratna Dwi Puji Astuti explained that the PKPI-PMSDU scholarship has relatively high qualifications and targets, one of which is to have publications published in reputable international journals (Scopus indexed journal or web of science).
This program can be taken as an opportunity to collaborate with the world’s top researchers to expand the knowledge and experiences of doctoral students in research.
The research topics of the four FKM graduate students are as follows:
1. Hasan Basri: “The Effects of Giving Flour and Moringa Leaf Extract during Pregnancy on Nutritional Status (Stunting and Wasting) and Growth and Development of children aged 2-5 Years”.
2. Rahayu Nurul Reski: “The Effects of Giving Moringa Leaf Extract (Moringaoleifera) to Preconception Women on Pregnancy Outcomes in North Polongbangkeng District, Takalar Regency.”
3. Annisa Utami Rauf: “Predicting the Risk of Silica and Heavy Metal Pollution on the Environment and Public Health in the Maros Cement Industrial Area.”
4. Ratna Dwi Puji Astuti: “Dynamic Model of Heavy Metal Pollution Impact Based on Environmental Health Risk Analysis on Communities in the Pangkajene Coastal Area.”
Marningsih Sadik, S.S. and Kumara Tungga Dewa, S.S.
Editor : Ishaq Rahman, AMIPR
