The outbreak decline of Covid-19 cases makes the enthusiasm of students to attend offline lectures. This is supported by government policies related to face-to-face learning. Such encouraging policy has made three students of Nahdlatul Ulama University Surabaya (Unusa) from Timor Leste are in Surabaya and are ready to attend offline lectures. They are Adnan Manuel (Nursing undergraduate), Nofa Amalia Soares (Nursing undergraduate), Koiru Nisa R Costa (Nursing undergraduate).
Unusa Rector, Prof. Ir. Achmad Jazidie, M.Eng., appreciated the spirit of these East Timor students who pursue their studies at Unusa. Prof. Jazidie also welcomed them to join Nahdlatul Ulama University Surabaya in the foreign students’ program. He hopes that they will quickly adapt and learn a lot about the local culture during their study in Surabaya. The rector hopes that in the future more foreign students from Timor Leste will continue their studies at Unusa. He added that Unusa will promote Unusa in East Timor to attract directly the interests of East Timorese there.
The rector quoted as saying: “We will promote in East Timor and hope that many East Timorese can study in Unusa since we have the same culture,”. He expressed his hopes from his office on the 8th floor of Unusa tower, Campus B Jemursari Surabaya, Tuesday (17/5).
Chairman of An-Nur Foundation, East Timor, Anwar Dakosta who is at Unusa to accompany the students expressed his gratitude to Unusa for providing full scholarships to his students in Timor Leste. He said that Students from East Timor can learn academic and non-academic as well as religious sciences since they are still learning Islam. He added: “Alhamdulillah, Unusa has those three aspects”.
One of Unusa East Timor students, Koiru Nisa R Costa expressed her gratitude for having been allowed to study further through the Unusa scholarship. During the year, she took online learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “Alhamdulillah, at this time, we can arrive in Surabaya to carry out the learning process offline or face-to-face,” she said.