UIN Sunan Ampel, Islamic University of Surabaya, has been actively embedding use of community-based participatory research in all its service learning programmes. As per the national policy, all students of post-secondary institutions have to participate compulsorily in 6-8 weeks of KKN—service learning—in a village. In this university, all these students are trained to use CBR to develop a data-base of the village assets and potentials, using participatory research methodology.
Dr Rajesh Tandon,UNESCO Co-Chair, learnt about these innovative practices during his day-long interactions with 15 faculty of the university on August 5, 2016.
The faculty members have also undergone some training in CBR so that they can train students every semester. A large number of case studies, and manuals on methodology of Participatory Action Research, have been developed in Bhasa Indonesia for use by students and faculty.
Outside the service learning programme, however, the use of CBR methodology is not very widespread. It has not been used for dissertation work of graduate and doctoral students; other than a few departments like community development, this methodology is not in much use for student practicums either.
These discussions laid the basis for Dr Tandon to share the findings of next Gen study, and describe in detail how UNESCO Chair articulates community-based participatory research. In further conversation, it was agreed that UIN Sunan Ampel will be happy to collaborate with UNESCO Chair as a part of International Consortium to build capacity of next generation of CBR researchers in Indonesia.
The Rector, Dr. Abd. A’la also reiterated the commitment of the University to carry forward this partnership in a meaningful manner. “
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