UMS Lecturer Wins 2026 Sylff International Research Grant

One of the lecturers from Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta (UMS) has once again achieved an outstanding international accomplishment. He successfully earned the Sylff Research Grant (SRG) , a prestigious research award presented by The Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (Sylff) to young scholars from around the world.

The grant is given to researchers with exceptional projects that demonstrate strong social impact, innovation, and the potential to make a real contribution to sustainable global development.

UMS lecturer from the Pancasila and Civic Education program, Obby Taufik Hidayat, Ph.D., was selected after a rigorous and highly competitive process among young academics from many countries. His proposed research focuses on service learning programs conducted in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and Indonesia.

“In Indonesia, the term service learning is still relatively unfamiliar. Most of its theories and concepts come from Western countries, for example, from the United States or Italy which have now also been adopted by Singapore and Malaysia in the Southeast Asian region. In those countries, service learning pedagogy is already integrated into the formal education curriculum, particularly in higher education,” explained Obby on Friday (31/10/2025).

In Indonesia, the pedagogy most similar to service learning is Kuliah Kerja Nyata (KKN) or community service program. However, according to Obby, KKN cannot yet be considered true service learning. He believes that KKN does not fully meet the principles or philosophical foundations of service learning.

“Findings from my previous research show that KKN tends to focus more on community service, so students do not gain much from the innovative pedagogy itself especially when linked to student learning outcomes,” he elaborated.

He gave an example: “For instance, a student from the English Education program might spend most of their KKN teaching Qur’an recitation at a mosque every afternoon. While that is certainly a positive activity, it does not align with the student’s academic learning outcomes or credit requirements,” he said.

His upcoming research will conduct a comparative analysis of service learning implementation in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, and Indonesia. As for Singapore and Malaysia, Obby explained that these two countries have already integrated service learning into their higher education curricula.

In Malaysia, service learning is carried out for three months, while in Singapore it lasts for six months, in contrast to Indonesia’s KKN program, which only runs for one month.

“They have classes beforehand to prepare proposals and identify problems first. In my previous research, when I visited students doing KKN, many of them were still unsure about what to do,” he further explained.

In short, one month, according to Obby, is too short and does not provide a significant impact for students. During the first week, students are only introducing themselves to the local community, and by the final week, they are already preparing to leave the KKN site.

Furthermore, through this grant, the researcher aims to produce an academic publication in the reputable international journal Globalisation, Societies, and Education, indexed in Scopus Q1, as a tangible contribution to scientific advancement as well as a step to strengthen UMS academic reputation globally.

With the achievement of this international research grant, he added, UMS position as a globally competitive university is further reinforced. This accomplishment also adds to the university’s international recognition in the fields of research and innovation, demonstrating that UMS academics are capable of contributing and being acknowledged within the global scholarly community.

Writer: Maysali Sudarwati

Editor: Fika Annisa’ Sholihah

Translator: Farizal Luqman Majid