Universitas Padjadjaran hosted the “Erasmus+ Indonesian Higher Education Leadership (iHiLead) Piloting Leadership Development Program Phase 2” which was held at the Unpad Jatinangor campus, 23 to 25 August 2022.
The head of the activity committee who is also a Professor at the Unpad Faculty of Pharmacy Prof. Melisa Intan Barliana, Ph.D, Apt. said that this activity was a continuation of the iHiLead Piloting Leadership Development Program Phase 1 which was held at the Indonesian Islamic University (UII) in July 2022.
This activity was held as an implementation of a grant received by Unpad along with seven universities in Indonesia that received an Erasmus+ grant related to capacity building. The grant program lasts for three years from 2021. For this reason, the consortium of grant recipients organized a leadership development program for officials in the higher education environment.
This program will be implemented in 3 phases. “In Bandung, this is the second phase. The third phase is in December in Malang. Later there will be a progress report in Granada Spain in September,” said Prof. Melissa.
This activity was attended by 14 participants who were representatives of officials from each of the grant recipient universities. In the training, apart from being given material exposure, participants were also asked to identify problems, find solutions to problems, and implement solutions. “Because this is higher education the target is more for universities to increase the capacity of leaders at universities. So the trainees are given training so they can solve problems that can indeed be applied nationally,” explained Prof. Melissa. Furthermore, Prof. Melisa said that this year the capacity building program was in the pilot stage and next year, each tertiary institution would organize a similar training by cooperating with participants from other tertiary institutions. “Next year will be the implementation phase, so each university must organize its own leadership training program,” said Prof. Melissa.
The opening of the activity was held at Bale Sawala Rectorate Building Jatinangor Unpad, Monday (23/8/2022). In his remarks, Unpad Chancellor Prof. Rina Indiastuti said that skills related to leadership and management are needed for university leaders in Indonesia. “Higher education is required to produce graduates who are able to compete and have a positive impact on society. To improve the quality of output, leadership and management skills are needed from higher education leaders,” said the Chancellor.
Thus, the Chancellor appreciates the implementation of this program that supports this. Cooperation from various universities is also needed with a strong commitment to jointly develop leadership programs in Indonesia. “I hope we can optimize this activity,” said the Chancellor.