BANDUNG, UNIKOM — Universitas Komputer Indonesia (UNIKOM) continues to strengthen its steps towards becoming a world-class university by improving human resource capacity. One of these strategic efforts was realized through English Conversation Training held on Tuesday and Thursday, January 27 and 29, 2026. This training activity was initiated by the Directorate of International Programs (DIP) in collaboration with the Directorate of General Administration of UNIKOM. The training was specifically aimed at UNIKOM educational staff to hone their skills and confidence in communicating in English, in line with the increasing need for international standard academic and administrative services.
Two international experts from Australia, Prof. Debbie Plath (professor of social work and academic from the Ikon Institute of Australia and the University of Newcastle) and Prof. Abby Van Stryker (English expert from the Australian Volunteers Program), were invited as instructors for the training. Both instructors provided a global perspective as well as a communicative and applicable learning approach.
The first meeting was held in the Multipurpose Room on the 15th floor of UNIKOM, while the second meeting was held in a classroom on the 10th floor of the UNIKOM Smart Building. Each session was designed to be interactive and tailored to the work needs of the participants in their respective units.
In the initial meeting, participants were trained to compose and ask questions about their work units and job descriptions in English while also engaging in active discussion. Meanwhile, in the following meetings, the material focused on the use of conjunctions, proper pronunciation, and vocabulary enrichment to support more effective and natural communication. The participants’ enthusiasm was evident in their active discussions and courage to speak English during the sessions.
In an interview, Prof. Abby Van Stryker said that the main objective of the training was to build participants’ courage to use English in their daily work, especially in serving international students. “The purpose of today’s activity is to get people to speak English about international students, what questions they ask, and what answers they can give. There was a lot of laughter in the room, and that’s important in the learning process,” she said.
Furthermore, Prof. Abby also emphasized that English as an international language does not have to be used perfectly to be understood. “I hope that UNIKOM’s educational staff realizes that, like it or not, English is an international language. It doesn’t have to be perfect, the most important thing is to be confident to speak and understand each other. If this training makes people feel warm and confident to speak English, then our job is done,” she added.
Through this English training, UNIKOM hopes that its educational staff will have adequate international communication skills, enabling them to support professional, inclusive, and globally competitive campus services. This activity also reaffirms UNIKOM’s commitment to building an academic ecosystem that is adaptive to the demands of higher education internationalization. (Directorate of Hms & Pro)
