- Posted by : OCIA UMB
- on : August 29, 2025
Three students from the International Program of Communication Studies (IPCS) at Universitas Muhammadiyah Bengkulu have wrapped up a month-long internship at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Universiti Sains Malaysia, in Penang. Dio Alifiano, Rena Novriani, and Winda Agustina took part in the program through UMB Global Pathways, the university's international mobility initiative managed by the International Affairs Office. Their placement at one of Southeast Asia's oldest and most active policy research centers gave them direct exposure to an academic environment that few undergraduate students from Indonesian universities get to experience firsthand. The three returned to Bengkulu not just with a certificate, but with a working understanding of how research institutions at the international level actually operate.
During their time at CPR-USM, the students worked under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohammad Reevany Bustami, a senior researcher who completed his doctorate at the London School of Economics and Political Science, specializing in organizational sociology and globalization. Reevany has led numerous research projects spanning inter-religious relations, migration, multicultural studies, and corporate social responsibility, with funding from bodies including the United Nations Development Programme and Swedish International Development Agencies. Being mentored by someone with that kind of track record is not a standard feature of undergraduate education anywhere, and the three students from Bengkulu made full use of the access. Their daily work brought them into the rhythms of an active research center rather than a simulated classroom exercise.
CPR-USM traces its roots to 1974, making it Malaysia's oldest public policy research center, and focuses on multidisciplinary research across social, economic, and environmental policy. The center works closely with government agencies, the private sector, and community organizations, which means the research being done there tends to have real policy stakes attached to it. For Dio, Rena, and Winda, that translated into a work environment where the questions being asked mattered beyond the walls of the institution. CPR-USM has noted that internship programs of this kind are designed to expose students to dynamic research environments and equip them with skills and insights they can carry back to their home institutions. That description fits what the three UMB students experienced, though the word "dynamic" does not quite capture how different it is to sit inside a functioning research center versus reading about one.
For UMB's International Affairs Office, the completion of this internship carries weight beyond the individual experience of three students. A memorandum of understanding between two universities is only as meaningful as the activities it actually produces, and a supervised, month-long research placement with documented outputs is among the more concrete forms that international cooperation can take. In the Indonesian higher education context, accreditation assessors across multiple Lembaga Akreditasi Mandiri bodies look specifically at whether student mobility programs generate real activity within the past three years, not just signed agreements filed away in an office drawer. This program produced exactly the kind of evidence that matters. The students went, did the work, and came back.
The formal send-off ceremony held on the UMB campus before the students departed drew attendance from university leadership, a sign that the program carries institutional backing rather than running quietly on the margins of campus life. UMB's International Affairs Office has indicated that the Global Pathways initiative will continue expanding to more study programs and partner universities across the region. Given what Dio, Rena, and Winda demonstrated during their time in Penang, that expansion has a credible foundation to build on. The path from Bengkulu to an international research environment, it turns out, is shorter than it might seem.