NEW LEADER, NEW HOPE (INTERVIEW)

Having a new leader means having a new hope. So, on November 30^th 2017, we had an exclusive interview with the new head of English Language Center of UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Dr. Syamsudin, to know more about his view on our unit and his vision for the better future of English Language Center of UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang.

How do you feel when you first appointed as the Director of PKPBI?

I do believe that it is an amanah given by the university and of course I should try my best to make this unit better than before.

What do you think of PKPBI now?

I think PKPBI now has better coordination and communication. We have agreed to build a better relationship between lecturers although the atmosphere has been quite good so far. Using communication and coordination, we can get closer and I experience it myself by communicating more with the lecturers here, I am as a new person in this unit can get closer easily to the lecturers here. Well, having a close-knit relationship among coworkers is important, because by doing so we can coordinate and cooperate to actualize our upcoming programs for a better PKPBI. Related to coordination, we also have agreed on the new structure of divisions in PKPBI. I am very glad to know that some divisions have started their work even though it was just less than two weeks after we decided the new structure for divisions in this unit. I hope with better communication and coordination, we can work together to realize our goals and improve PKPBI.

Related to divisions in our unit, PKPBI, there are new divisions added beside the existing ones. So, what are the considerations in adding those divisions to the structure?

The main consideration was that I hope PKPBI will have a better working performance. What I witnessed so far and also from all feedbacks from the lecturers, it is implied that the involvement of our lecturers here needs to be improved. I want all lecturers to participate in all of PKPBI programs and events. By getting involved and participated actively on the programs, the lecturers will feel that they belong to PKPBI family. This is very important since as a unit we need to build a strong bond between our members. Togetherness is very crucial since it can motivate us to work harder by helping our coworkers in anything we do especially in things related to our work here in PKPBI. I hope with the addition of new divisions, specifically those which are related to the development of academic matters, would make all lecturers feel more enthusiastic in improving their knowledge because of course it will directly affect the students. When the lecturers are improved in term of their way of teaching and transferring knowledge, I believe the students will find learning more enjoyable and it will result in their learning achievement.

You have mentioned several things that are important to develop PKPBI. Such as Togetherness, work improvement, and communication. How about transparency?

Transparency is very important to build trust. By being transparent in sharing opinion including critique and in term of financial transparency, we are going to have openness which is important to build trust between members of our unit. When we trust each other, it will result in better working performance.

How would you describe PKPBI in the future?

PKPBI should become the unit in which the lecturers can improve their knowledge in teaching and enhance their working performance. This improvement, I believe, will have significant impact to the students we teach. When the lecturers’ knowledge is improved, they will be rich of teaching know-how, such as knowledge related to the teaching methodology or the teaching of ESP. But it should not stop there, the lecturers need to apply their knowledge into teaching. I think by applying suitable teaching methodolgy, for example, will help the student to learn English easily. Since when students are enjoying their learning, absorbing the knowledge in class will be effortless too.

PKPBI also has some divisions here such as translation, TOEFL, training, etc. In the future, we are going to maximize the roles of these divisions, specifically, we plan to have partnership with some institutions outside UIN for example schools or universities or Islamic boarding schools. I hope PKPBI in the future will be beneficial not only for lecturers and students, but also for the society around UIN Malang, at least in East Java, and if it is possible I wish we can also bring better impact to people outside East Java.

At last, as a new leader at PKPBI, can you please give us a word for motivation?

I would like to invite all of the lecturers to work by restructuring our intention that we work because of God. We must work happily and willingly because we want to do good deeds to others. Insyaallah by doing so, everything we teach to our students will be barakah not only for them but also for us as lecturers. So, hopefully the knowledge we share to our students will make them become better persons in the future. One more important thing I would like to emphasize is, as lecturers, we must always improve ourselves.

We can see that Dr. Syamsudin, as the new head of PKPBI, puts priority to build communication and relationship between lecturers as well as to motivate them to improve their performance through providing chances in learning and sharing knowledge. Hopefully, what Dr. Syamsudin targetted with the support of all elements in PKPBI, will be realized soon.

-dw-