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| Okta Pringga Pakpahan, S.P., M.Agr Sc., Dosen UMM yang berhasil menyelesaikan studi sarjana di Saga University dan magister di Hiroshima University. (Photo: Istimewah) |
To produce quality and integrity academics, the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) certainly has many lecturers who graduated from abroad. One of them is Okta Pringga Pakpahan, S.P., M.Agr Sc., a lecturer who has completed undergraduate studies at Saga University and master's at Hiroshima University. He got this success thanks to his hard work getting a scholarship.
As he is known, Oka said that his undergraduate studies were obtained through the Jasso scholarship. According to him, the process is quite long, including a ranking of language skills, academics, and planning research to be carried out in Japan.
The obstacle faced when in Japan is language. He admitted that it took him less than three months to become proficient in Japanese by taking a Japanese language course. "Thank God, after a year in Japan. I tried to take the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) to make my activities there easier. I graduated with an N3 score which can be said to be quite satisfactory," explained the Food Technology study program, lecturer.
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After graduating from Saga University, he was introduced by his professor to colleagues at Hiroshima University. From the meeting, he received an offer to take a further master's degree test at Hiroshima University. The opportunity was finally taken, and the next step was to prepare for the exam to take the master's degree.
While continuing his studies in Japan, Oka researched food safety related to Salmonella Typhimurium, a bacterium that causes diarrhea and food contamination in the food processing process. "When food is processed, there are indications of some action that causes the pathogen to spread more. These pathogenic bacteria make people sick with diarrhea," he explained.
He sees that sanitation in Asia, especially Indonesia, still has many problems. Even with the supervision, that is felt less stringent. As a result, if food is not processed correctly, the disease will appear and hurt humans.
One of the benefits of his research is that people can know that salmonella can still live in icy or hot conditions. Meanwhile, the salmonella bacteria will die if the temperature reaches more than 90 degrees Celsius.
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"The recommendation I can give so that people can avoid Salmonella Typhimurium bacteria is to eat clean foods in their environment. In addition, foods that are rich in nutrients, fiber, and vitamins are sufficient. These two steps are considered effective enough to prevent themselves from these bacteria," he said.
The knowledge gained while in Japan made him want to apply good things to UMM. One of them is the professor's habit of holding a meeting with students every week. Both those who are being mentored by street vendors or thesis to discuss the research that has been developed.
"Every week, I meet with students to establish control so they don't disappear. Sometimes the problem is not external but internal. Sometimes final students are afraid of plans after graduating from college and lack self-confidence. This is where I give my motivation and perspective," he said.
He is grateful that the White Campus always supports the thoughts and potential of its academic community. Not only for students but also for lecturers and employees. So that UMM can continue to progress and develop.
Interestingly, at this time, Oka was recruited to become a Ph.D. student through a vacancy or research assistant professor at a research project consortium (Portugal, Netherlands, Spain). This research was funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). (cdr/ros/wil)
