������

UNAIR NEWS – The thought of being UNAIR Vice Rector I has never crossed the mind of Prof. Djoko Santoso, dr., Sp.PD-KGH., Ph.D., FINASIM. At the age of 54 this year, has been trusted with many positions. After carrying his job as Vice Dean II of Faculty of Medicine (FK) UNAIR, he was trusted as Vice Rector which supervises Academic and Student Affairs as of August 20, 2015.  For him, a position is a trust. So in a way, it gives him opportunity to do good deeds. His position as Vice Rector I UNAIR is a task he has to bear along with the trust attached to it.

“Yes, it’s a trust. Instead of saying alhamdulillah, I say bismillah so that I can perform well with this trust bestowed  to me, which actually quite a burden,” said the professor on internal medicine from FK UNAIR.

For him, being Vice Rector I is quite a burden as currently UNAIR has 14 faculties and 1 postgraduate school, 1,502 lecturers, 38,000 students and 167 programs. The professor from Jombang has to think how to exploits those resources to reach Top 500 World University in 2019 as targeted by Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education.

”It all comes back to our devotion and sincerity. That’s the consequence. If devotion and sincerity are given to serve, then time management is no longer an issue. As Allah SWT deals with them for our sake,” he said.

For Prof. Djoko, when he is devoted and serves to hold the trust as vice rector with good intention and not for the popularity, then he will not be burdened to work.

Heritage of Father’s Spirit

Djoko’s father died when he was only five years old. He has had his ups and downs in life. His late father was a school headmaster and his memory kept his spirit up when he faced adversity in life.

”Those values keep my spirit up, so in unfavorable condition of economic and education, I had to survive,” said Prof. Djoko Santoso reminiscing.

As an active boy in his teen, Djoko did not like to stay at home after school. With his friends he played in the field, played table-tennis, and interacted with other friends. He considered that as his soft skill later on, it was useful when he was grown-up. He was brought up in a Javanese community so no wonder if his Javanese is refined.

Before he finally started his career in medicine, it never crossed his mind to work in the ‘expensive’ field. At that time, when he finished senior high school, he applied in two universities, Teaching and Educational Science Institute (IKIP) Malang and Faculty of Medicine  Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta.

He was accepted in Malang but he was also accepted in Medicine UGM. He chose medicine and got his degree as a doctor. “Nothing to base my choice on. If I was accepted in IKIP, I would be a teacher. But Allah gave me Medical Decree,” he said reminiscing.

When he was at college, he did not always have the textbooks. He often borrowed books from friends when they were sleeping. “During college, I borrowed all of the books. When a friend was sleeping, I used the book. When he was awake, I went to sleep,” he said.

Since that moment, a career in medicine opened for him. After graduated as a doctor (S1) then he took master program at UNAIR and a doctoral program at Juntendo-University School of Medicine, Japan.

International Collaborations

After being inducted and inaugurated as Vice Rector I UNAIR, Prof. Djoko started assuming office by identify the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). There are three things he will set in motion in doing his tasks. To acquire the Ministry’s target, he will pursue four things,   academic excellence, research excellence, community service excellence, and university holding excellence.

In the graphic presented in UNAIR work meeting, there were three integrated components which direct to world class university. First, abundant resources. Second, favorable governance. Third, concentration of talent.

He expected UNAIR to increase its international collaborations. Excellent academic reputation is proven by excellent international relations. International relations are proven by percentages of inbound and outbound students and lecturers, visiting professor from overseas and vice-versa.

“Regarding exchange program, it shouldn’t only be about resources but also about the educational system. Transfer credit or mobility credit. Learning here for six months has given international acknowledgement. Research collaborations too and then international trainings, seminars, workshops are all in for program internationalization. They can be transferred. That’s academic excellence,” he said.

Excellent academic is proven by program acknowledgement at international level, certified by ASEAN University Network (AUN). Furthermore, it will be supported by the academician achievements at international level as well as equal technology and information in all UNAIR programs.

“Research excellence, was about technology transfer. Researches conducted should flow to the community. Improved, published, multiplied, and later marketed and distributed. Some of the researches should be included in classes material, so the knowledge transferred is updated and applied. And later UNAIR can claim that its existence has brought prosperity for the world. That’s research excellence,” said the author of 60 Menit Menuju Ginjal Sehat.

He targeted in 2016, there will be many visiting professors coming here. They will not only give lectures but also discuss about researches “tree” as these research collaborations and visiting professor program can only be done after UNAIR professor has his research published and indexed at Scopus. That standard makes them acknowledge us.

”Our capacity before was about 100 Scopus indexed. Those scientific publications should be improved three times more. A hundred lecturers should invite 200 lecturers. If now we have 40% Ph.Ds, it means there are 600 doctors, half of them are 300. Insya Allah. Why couldn’t we? Innama amruhu idza arada syaian anyaqula lahu kun fayakun,” said the winner of The young Investigator’s Award Travel Grant  in 2002.

To Serve Always

Prof. Djoko has three sons, all of them took medicine. Eventhough he is busy, he always remember his oath to serve, so he still runs his private clinic, a dialytic clinic in Mulyosari he opened in 2010.

There are five wealth he always feels grateful for in life, health, mental wealth, spiritual wealth, networking social wealth, and intellectual wealth.

“I often goes deep in thought. It doesn’t have to be high sounding, but it should be useful, earthly, where people can feel our prosperity,” said Prof. Djoko.

“We only have one life, try to always be useful for others. Because if it isn’t meaningful, it means you have failed. Writing books should be about useful ideas, our work for the poor. That’s what makes our life meaningful,” he said. (*)

Author : Binti Quryatul Masruroh
Editor : Bambang Bes