A team from the Faculty of Law, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FH UGM), won a gold medal at the 29th National Student Scientific Week (PIMNAS XXIX) 2016 in the Social Sciences and Humanities Research category (PKM-PSH). The competition was held at the Bogor Agricultural University (Institut Pertanian Bogor/IPB), Bogor, West Java, from August 7–12, 2016.
The team consisted of Mokhammad Ardafillah (Constitutional Law concentration) as team leader, with Elisabet Regitta Widyaningrum (International Law concentration), Yanottama Patria Avicienna (Tax Law concentration), and Siti Aan Kumaenah (Agrarian Law concentration) as members. The team was supervised by Dr. Harry Supriyono, S.H., M.Si.
For the competition, the team conducted legal research entitled “Legal Protection for Indonesian Students Abroad Experiencing International Armed Conflict,” focusing on Indonesian students at Al Aghaff University in Hadhramaut, Yemen. The research was conducted over approximately four months and involved Indonesian students studying at Al Aghaff University, both those who remained in Yemen and those who had been repatriated to Indonesia following the armed conflict. To involve Indonesian students at Al Aghaff University, Mokhammad Ardafillah and his team coordinated with and received assistance from the Chairperson of the Indonesian Student Association (PPI) in Hadhramaut, Yemen. The research also involved several expert sources, including representatives from the Directorate for the Protection of Indonesian Citizens at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, represented by the Head of the Indonesian Citizen Evacuation Team responsible for the mass evacuation during the armed conflict in Yemen; a staff member of the Yemeni Embassy in Jakarta; an Education and Culture Attaché at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Egypt who also served as an education consul for the Middle East; and an international humanitarian law expert and lecturer at the Department of International Law, Faculty of Law, Universitas Gadjah Mada.
Led by Mokhammad Ardafillah, the team secured the highest position in the annual competition organized by the Directorate General of Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia after presenting its research findings before the PIMNAS XXIX PKM-PSH judging panel. Before reaching the PIMNAS stage, participating teams first had to pass a national proposal selection process, followed by monitoring and evaluation conducted by the Directorate General of Higher Education (DIKTI) for teams whose proposals had been selected for funding. Of the 4,996 proposals submitted, only 346 proposals or teams received funding from DIKTI to conduct their research. From those 346 teams, only the 40 best teams advanced to PIMNAS, where they competed for gold, silver, and bronze medals. At PIMNAS XXIX, Universitas Gadjah Mada won 9 gold, 5 silver, and 6 bronze medals, placing UGM second in the overall university standings, narrowly behind Universitas Brawijaya. For the Faculty of Law UGM, the gold medal won by Mokhammad Ardafillah’s team marked the faculty’s first PIMNAS gold medal. (M. Ardafillah)
