The Extension and Development Communication Doctoral Program (PKP) at UGM held an alumni sharing session, featuring Niken Meilani with the theme “Life is a Struggle.”
On this occasion, Niken shared her experiences pursuing doctoral studies, emphasizing the importance of perseverance, time management, communication, leadership, and support systems from family, friends, and lecturers. She stressed that from the beginning, students need to identify their passion, choose courses supporting their dissertation, and prepare a dissertation proposal draft starting from the third semester.
Time management became a key point, where every day must include activities related to the dissertation, whether reading journals, writing, or data analysis. She also highlighted the importance of enhancing skills with various academic applications such as Mendeley, Zotero, NVivo, SPSS, SmartPLS, and Grammarly.
Niken reminded that one of the graduation requirements is publication in an indexed international journal, which requires thorough preparation regarding indexation, costs, and publication timelines. Therefore, students are encouraged to make a list of target journals early on and understand their writing guidelines.
The session closed with a motivational message encouraging PKP students to keep striving, creating, and courageously communicating any challenges they encounter. “It’s not easy, but it’s far from impossible — we can do it,” she said enthusiastically.
Writer: Yeti Susilowati