Graduation is the moment that every student looks forward to the most. Graduation is also a moment that indicates the student has completed their study. Not surprisingly, this graduation momentum is often greeted with lively activities according to the traditions of each campus and accompanied by feelings of happiness from the graduates. The excitement also seemed to be reflected in 75 students whose graduation was celebrated at the Faculty of Law, Universitas Airlangga, in October 2022. In his remarks, Iman Prihandono, S.H., M.H., LL.M., Ph.D., as the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Universitas Airlangga, explained that this event is a sign for students who are ready to apply their knowledge to the community. According to him, graduates are few of the educated people in this country, so they carry out the mandate to use their knowledge to advance the nation’s life to create a just and civilized society.
Legal higher education in Surabaya was initiated in 1951 and later merged into Universitas Airlangga in 1954. This shows that it has been 71 years; it was a long journey. “It also means that you today, who were inaugurated at this event, are the result of searching, experimenting, and implementing methods for providing quality legal higher education,” he said. However, despite all the evolutions and developments that have been felt, the essential point is to ensure the implementation of future-oriented legal higher education. Various needs are certainly needed to provide quality legal higher education with a superior academic reputation, ranging from support from alumni, graduates with professional quality work, information technology facilities, a robust academic environment, to an interdisciplinary curriculum. At present, graduates should also be happy because the Faculty of Law, Universitas Airlangga, is already at the same level as the Faculty of Law at the best universities in the world.
The international law lecturer also told the graduates to prepare themselves as future Juris immediately. This is because having solid legal logic, solving legal problems, and reading cases and laws and regulations is not enough. According to him, there are three essential skills that future lawyers must master.
First, technological ability does not mean understanding it in detail but simply knowing how the new technology works. For example, how artificial intelligence works to generate data and information that has legal consequences. The second is project management capabilities because future business processes and human activities will be complex. This creates a tendency for clients and workplaces to want a problem solved in one package. These project management skills include budgeting skills, organizing people skills, monitoring and evaluation skills, and the ability to collaborate with other disciplines. Third, good emotional intelligence skills include self and social awareness, strong communication, leadership, and the ability to understand people. They may not have been taught and trained optimally during their education at the Faculty of Law, Universitas Airlangga. However, he believes that all graduates will continue to study and prepare themselves well.
In closing, he conveyed his congratulations and pride to the graduates who were held today because during his studies, he had been a part of bringing the Faculty of Law, Universitas Airlangga together to be the best and on par with other world’s best Law Faculties. “Continue to be the best because you are also from the best,” he said. The graduates also always remember the phrase, ‘winners adapt, and losers makes an excuse’ which means that only those who can adapt will succeed in this era of uncertainty. “Remember that you graduated today at a time when the changes are taking place very quickly,” he said at the end of the speech.
