Universitas Muhammadiyah Karanganyar (UMUKA) was officially established by the merger of three higher education institutions: Akademi Peternakan Karanganyar, Akademi Sekretari dan Manajemen Santa Anna, and Akademi Pariwisata Widya Nusantara. The establishment was marked by the submission of the Ministerial Decree of the Ministry of Education, Research, and Technology and the launching of UMUKA, Tuesday (07/06).

In his remarks, the Chairman of Muhammadiyah Central Board, Ahmad Dahlan Rais, expected that this establishment should be seriously managed by qualified improvement to develop and provide various advantages in education, especially in Central Java. Based on the name of UMUKA, he called UMUKA Universitas Terkemuka (a prominent university). “By the tagline of Universitas Terkemuka, I hope it will be full of determination, not reckless decisions and acts,” he said.

He also invited all Muhammadiyah members to be grateful for the Muhammadiyah achievements. Moreover, he urged to build a strong leadership to make the intentions clear. Varied intentions without strong leadership will be useless.

Juliyatmono, Karanganyar Regent, responded favorably with gratitude to the UMUKA establishment. According to him, the existence of the Muhammadiyah higher education institution in Karanganyar would be a milestone and invaluable idea. “We witnessed a long process of valuable ideas for Karanganyar people to own a good university. Karanganyar is strategic and deserves to produce excellent human resources,” he said.

UMUKA would manage several Bachelor programs, for instance, Computer Engineering, Informatics Engineering, Digital Business, Communication, Accounting, and Physiotherapy. Also, it would organize Vocational programs, including Livestock Production, Secretary, Tourism Management, and Hospitality. [] CHERD/UM Karanganyar