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ogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University (UGM) is set to apply a new concept for its community service program (KKN) for students next year in its bid to make a positive impact in the targeted regions.

UGM rector Panut Mulyono revealed the plan during his official visit to Samosir regency in North Sumatra recently.

“The idea has been outlined. We are currently discussing the details of it, especially regarding its implementation in the field,” Panut told The Jakarta Post.

The KKN is compulsory for students who have completed the 100-semester credit system, or SKS. The state university is considered a pioneer of the program, which has gained domestic and international acknowledgement.

In the program, students are put into groups of 20 to 30 and placed in a particular region for two months, or seven weeks at the minimum.

A region normally has KKN students with them for only two months once a year. The new concept would introduce the community service program in a certain location for a whole year or even more, Panut said.

In order to keep the program sustainable, when a batch of students finishes their program, another batch would soon replace them to continue the work, hence speeding up the realization of the program.

The concept would also let students do their KKN program in installments, and would not require them to spend two continuous months at a particular location.

“This can also be synergized with our supervised village program,” he said, adding that the presence of KKN students in a supervised village would speed up the program.

Separately, UGM’s community service director Irfan Dwidya Prijambada said UGM had been conducting the KKN programs in 34 provinces.

Each province received three groups of students a year, and each location was where the program would remain for five consecutive years.

He said some regions received KKN students from UGM up to four times a year.

“This applies for regions that are willing to fund the suggested development program that was designed according to their respective potentials,” said Irfan, citing Bangka in Riau Islands, which wants to develop the fishery sector, as an example.

He said if the new concept is to be applied, then it would be an improvement on the decades-old program.

The community service program had succeeded in helping develop many regions, mostly in the agricultural and tourism sectors, he added.

In Bantaeng, South Sulawesi, for example, the program helped the region enjoy two rice harvests a year, from previously only one, thanks to the development of sumur renteng, a technology used to irrigate a farm with the help of pumps.

Aisyah Dwi Puji Astuti, a local resident in Unjur village, Sianjur Mulamula district, Samosir regency, also commended the presence of the KKN students in her village.

“Their presence for five consecutive years has helped change the mind-set of locals in term of development,” she said.

UGM first started the KKN program in 1951, with results that were manifested in several village development and resident empowerment programs. The success of the KKN programs included electricity availability in Raja Ampat, West Papua and Karimunjawa islands in Central Java and landslide warning systems in many areas like in Aceh, West Java and Central Java, as well as tourism development in Maratua, East Kalimantan and Wakatobi in Southeast Sulawesi, according to the university’s official website ugm.ac.id.