UGM Still The Best University In Indonesia For Digital Archiving

Photo illustration (Source: Gadjah Mada University)

JAKARTA - A university rating agency that focuses more on the digital field, 4 International College & University (4ICU), listed Gadjah Mada University (UGM) as the best campus in Indonesia in 2020. Meanwhile, Universitas Indonesia (UI) is in second place, followed by the Indonesian Education University (UPI) ranked third out of 573 campuses in Indonesia.

Director of the Directorate of Information Systems and Resources (DSDI) UGM, Widyawan said the ranking was an appreciation. He felt that the hard work of the UGM academic community in optimizing information technology in the fields of education, teaching and research paid off.

"In the midst of a pandemic outbreak and there is work from home (WfH) and study from home (SfH), the role of information technology is becoming increasingly important. This ranking can be both a spirit booster and a mirror for improvement," said Widayawan as quoted by the official UGM website (2). / 6).

Widyawan explained, 4ICU is a global university rating agency that measures the existence of digital archives and popularity based on the amount of web traffic, content credibility and web link popularity. "It is designed to provide information to prospective foreign students about the quality and popularity of a university in the world," he said.

Meanwhile, according to Widyawan, the higher the ranking indicates that the university's website is widely used as a reference and is widely used for academic and publication purposes. "The requirements can be academic and non-academic," he said.

UGM currently manages more than 45 thousand websites, including official sites, sites for activities such as seminars, journals and blogs for lecturers, students and employees. Then from the use of the site, of course, greatly affects the Google Index which is used as one of the ranking benchmarks.

"With many UGM sites that are well indexed, it will increase its digital presence, and with good content, it will be cited a lot by other sites. "Of course it will affect the ranking of 4ICU and webometrics," said Widyawan.

Although it has won first place many times, UGM is not complacent. Widyawan said UGM continues to make improvements to continue to improve the quality of education and teaching, especially in the early days of COVID-19.

"With WfH (work from home) and SfH (study from home), the ease of access to the UGM site must be improved from various regions of Indonesia with various infrastructure conditions. In addition, in terms of content, it must be further improved so that it fits with the online learning model, "he concluded.