Can you imagine studying in a tropical paradise?  Now, you can complete 1 semester of your study on a dream island in Eastern Indonesia while helping the local community through UTS Program Merdeka. The upcoming program will take place in Moyo Island, a hidden gem that is rich with biodiversity and economic potential. The program seeks to leverage the life of the local community through participative-community development. This program combines experiential learning while allowing you to explore the beautiful island of Moyo and at the same time improve your skills and enrich your experience in a community-based development program. It is a fun learning and exploration packed into an academically recognized program! You can transfer the credit of this program to your academic transcript. 

Moyo Island is a biodiversity hotspot that holds great potential for a niche touristic destination, especially that of eco and scientific tourism. The island is part of UNESCO designated area for biosphere reserves namely Samota a hotspot in Lesser Sunda Islands of Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB). The area comprises five major ecosystems; small islands, a coastal area of mangrove, coastal, lowland, and mountain forests, as well as savannah. For this first phase, the targeted village is Labuhan Aji, the village where several touristic spots such as Mata Jitu waterfall and Lady Diana ponds are located.  Labuan Aji Village, a village of 2950 people where this program takes place,  the majority of the population practices unirrigated farming (berladang), despite the growing tourism sector on the Island. 

Thinking on the potentials and challenges of Moyo island, the UTS Program Merdeka focus on empowering the local community of  Moyo island to tap the abundance of potentials of the islands to improve their lives economically and at the same time participate in natural environment conservation.  Program Merdeka is an experiential learning program aimed at honing the critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork skills of the students. In this program, UTS students spend a semester outside of the classroom intending to solve real challenges. It starts with identifying challenges faced by local communities, be it education, waste problems, or wasted potential to create solutions such as community education, creating products, and branding strategy for a village’s touristic potential. Applying what they have learned in classrooms, they work collaboratively with their peers from various study programs applying interdisciplinary principal to tackle challenges. While working on solutions, the programs also allow the students to learn from the societal challenges and dynamics, making the learning experiences contextual and relevant to the real world’s problems.