The 10th DREaM International Students Summer Program 2018
“Reinventing Education in the Disruptive Era”

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Universitas Gadjah Mada proudly presents the 10th DREaM International Students Summer Program 2018, organized by the Office of International Affairs (OIA) with the continued support and contribution of students and staffs. DREaM 2018 will be held on July 18 – 31, 2018. Students are involved in various activities such as two days of public lectures, followed by three days of internship, one day of workshop action plan, four days of community service and cultural excursions around Yogyakarta.

This year’s theme is “Reinventing Education in the Era of Disruption”, emphasizing on the importance of education and its existence in the present days which is heading towards a disruptive era. Through DREaM 2018, students from around the world can learn more about this issue and its actual implementation in the community. The younger generation may be initiators for the solution in reinventing education in the society and inspire others to make a better world for us and for our future generations, especially in the era of disruption. The program will see representatives from educators, policymakers, civil society, entrepreneurs and researchers involve in series of discussion and sharing ideas, opportunities and obstacles in the relationships between their respective spheres of influence.

We live in a world where change is the only certainty. Everything changes and some do change faster that anticipated. The introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) has significantly changed the way we live. Business and economy are changing dramatically. The way people interact has also changed unexpectedly. Now we witness less physical meetings but more interaction and more messages have been delivered.

Who would even guess, let say 15 years ago, that a well-established transportation company, like Blue Bird, in Indonesia would need to work really hard to control their drivers who performed violent demonstration on the street because they felt threatened by the rapidly growing online taxi such as Grab, Uber, and even Go-Jek. Companies like Blue Bird, once upon a time, are considered as the unbeatable transportation corporation. They are the kings, and they can dictate the market. It seemed that they had no serious competitors, until online taxi appeared and introduce a completely new approach of transportation.

We live in the era of disruption where things do not go as how we saw they went, back in ten or fifteen years ago. An established taxi company is not threatened by other well-established taxi companies but by a small group of people who do not even have one single car of motorbike and claimed as the biggest transportation company in the world. A well-established hotel system is not necessary beaten by other hotel chains with more hotels, more luxurious services or better space in their lobby. Managers and employees of a well-established hotel system are seriously worried because of the emergences of non-conventional accommodation services such as Airbnb or Airyroom. Competitors of banks are not other financial institutions but media companies like Bloomberg or Go-Jek with their payment system. This is truly a disruptive society.

What about education? Education is not excluded from the impact of disruptions. Not long time ago, Google made a bold announcement that they are willing to hire somebody with good skills, even though they have no diploma certificate from any university. This is, somehow, shocking to those who believe in formal education. With massive and distributive use of ICT, we are aware that anybody can learn anything from anywhere at anytime. When official diplomas are no longer in need, what are the roles of formal educational institutions?

Education is currently facing a new level of challenges. Educational institutions are forced to redefine their significance and roles. Reinventing education has never been more important then now, the era of disruptions.