Program Components (ASP)

ACICIS’ ASP program is composed of three key components, as outlined below. Students are required to satisfactorily complete all components in order to achieve an overall grade of ‘Satisfactory’ for the program:

All students undertake full-time study at IPB University in various faculties and departments. Students are required to complete a total of 12-15 SKS  credit points) per semester on this program, approximately 4-5 subjects.

Here is a list of subjects taught in English, available to ACICIS students undertaking the ASP in 2020.

The ASP Professional Placement provides an opportunity for students to gain valuable experience working in an Indonesian or international organisations and companies operating within the Indonesian agriculture sector. The professional placement offers students the chance to apply theoretical knowledge to a real-life professional context while fostering important practical skills in administration, research, and monitoring and evaluation.

Students may undertake the ASP Professional Placement either alongside their IPB classes (e.g. one to one-and-a-half day(s) per week around classes), or as a ‘block’ at the end of their semester.

Throughout the professional placement, students undertake a supervised period of unpaid work at a participating Host Organisation. Host Organisations for the ASP professional placement include international research institutes, tech start-ups, development agencies, consultancy companies, and agriculture production companies. Required tasks will vary depending on each Host Organisation, but generally may include: research and report writing, content editing, website editing, translation, data entry, monitoring and evaluation, and other tasks as required by individual Host Organisations.

Without good reason and the permission of their workplace mentor AND the ACICIS Resident Director, students must attend their placement during all contracted working hours. Students must satisfy both their Host Organisation and ACICIS staff that they have performed all assigned tasks to a satisfactory standard. On completion of the placement, the workplace mentor will be asked to evaluate the student’s performance. The mentor will be asked to comment on criteria related to both generic skills (e.g. interpersonal, communication, professionalism, initiative) and discipline-specific knowledge. This feedback will inform each student’s end-of-semester Student Outcome Evaluation report prepared by ACICIS’ Resident Director.

Applicants should be aware that, in applying for the ASP, they are applying for the program, not a specific placement. Participants are advised that it may not be possible for ACICIS to accommodate a student’s stated preferences with respect to their placement Host Organisation, however all efforts will be made to find a placement relevant to a student’s degree. Additionally, all ACICIS placements within ASP Host Organisations depend entirely on the goodwill and preparedness of such organisations to host participants. As such, Host Organisations retain the right to withdraw from the program or vary the number of participants they host at any stage. Therefore, while acting in good faith in preparing students for placements, ACICIS cannot guarantee any specific professional placement site and participants must accept this need for flexibility as a condition of participation in the ASP.

At the end of the program, students will give a brief (20 minute) presentation regarding their professional placement experience to their fellow ASP students and supervising ACICIS staff, followed by a brief question and answer session. Students are to prepare PowerPoint slides to accompany their presentation.