Yogyakarta, 21 February 2025–Pursuing higher education is not easy. Students, including doctoral or PhD students, often face various problems or challenges, from financial to mental health. Responding to this issue, The Conversation Indonesia held a webinar entitled “The Doctoral Road: From Financial Difficulties to Mental Stress” with academics and doctoral candidates. The event invited Pratiwi Utami, PhD (Lecturer at the Department of Communication Sciences UGM) and Herman Yosef Paryono (Doctoral Candidate in Organizational Behaviour, University of Groningen) as webinar speakers. read more

The welcoming event was continued with the presentation of basic public policy by Dr. Rob Manwaring. Dr. Rob explained the important foundations regarding the field of public policy and why the development of this field is very important. According to him, the government carries an important mandate in organizing the livelihood of thousands or even millions of the population. The process of decision-making then has to consider the interests and needs of the people as a whole. Rob then elaborated the two main elements in public policy, that is the tool and instrument of the government. 

“One of the instruments in public policy is the law. The government of Australia, in some cases, used the law as the main instrument, although the people-centered perspective is still used,” Dr. Rob mentioned. He gave several examples in how the government handled the problems of drivers going over the speed limit and Driving Under the Influence (DUI). For some time, Australia experienced a spike in traffic fatalities due to crashes. Responding to this issue, the Australian government then gave out sanctions to drivers who were caught to be under the influence by taking away their drivers license. read more

2 percent of positions in central government institutions to persons with disabilities, and 1 percent of positions in the private sector. Nevertheless, the National Economic Survey also noted that the amount of persons with disabilities in the productive age who are currently employed is less than 10 percent. read more

Yogyakarta, January 15th 2025 ─ Looking at the movement of labor organizations in Indonesia, Fisipol Corner of Universitas Gadjah Mada held a book review session of Labor and the State in Indonesia and Labor Writes 3: Split, Move on Wednesday (15/1). Both books contain reflections on labor experiences that are packaged in history so as to produce a picture of the political economy situation from time to time.

Vedi R. Hadiz, author of Labor and the State in Indonesia, states that the cultural condition of the current government’s fundamental system is not much different from the New Order. Starting from the question of why the voice of workers is still weak, even though democratization has been running after the reformation, Vedi thinks that this condition is due to the complex situation of the government. “Even though during the new order, the institutions and the government were destroyed, the power relations are still running until now,” explained Vedi. read more

Yogyakarta, 15 January 2025–Fisipol once again held an offline Christmas celebration event at Selasar Barat on January 8, 2025. This event was held at the same time to welcome the turn of the year at the same time. This year’s Christmas celebration was titled “Born to Serve the Justice and Peace of His Love”. This theme is carried to realize the justice and peace of Christ through actualization in real action, especially in favour of those who are marginalized and vulnerable. The justice referred to here not only refers to marginalized groups but also protects His creation, which is often neglected.  read more