UGM extends SDG education beyond the campus through dedicated outreach activities for local communities, people displaced by disaster, and UGM alumni.
Local communities
At UGM, undergraduate students take part in a mandatory community service programme during their study. Each year, teams of students supervised by a lecturer are deployed across all 38 of Indonesia’s provinces to work on problems faced in the local community. The programme is built around sustainable development, so every project connects a local need to the wider global agenda.
In 2025, one team ran the “Eco-Paving Education for a Sustainable Environment” programme in Getrakmoyan Village, Cirebon Regency, teaching residents to turn plastic waste into paving blocks. On the other side of the Sunda Strait, another team introduced green marine coastal planning to 40 students at a public high school in North Bengkulu, using presentations, discussion and model-making to show how a coastline can be managed sustainably.
Beyond student community service, UGM coordinates the Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE) Yogyakarta, part of the global network led by the United Nations University. In 2025, RCE Yogyakarta received an RCE Award from UNU-IAS as an Acknowledged Flagship Project. The award recognised a UGM-led project that builds inclusive education systems in marginalised villages by linking the university, local communities and regional government across formal, non-formal and community-based education.
UGM’s faculties also bring their expertise directly to communities. The Faculty of Forestry, working with PT PLN, held a focus group discussion with around 40 residents and members of local forest farmer groups to explain how to plant and maintain trees for watershed rehabilitation in Tanjungwangi Village, Cicalengka, Bandung Regency. Meanwhile, the Legal Aid Consultation Center of the Faculty of Law provided legal counselling to help Kebobang Village in Malang Regency become a legally aware village, in collaboration with the Desamind Indonesia Foundation.
Displaced people
When flash floods and landslides displaced communities across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra in late 2025, UGM moved quickly to keep learning going for survivors. On 7 December 2025, UGM disaster psychologist Diana Setiyawati trained student volunteers from Universitas Syiah Kuala before they restarted classes for child survivors. The training prepared around 25 volunteers working across four affected regencies to provide psychosocial support and create child-friendly, safe learning spaces in emergency schools.
UGM built on this support through the Peduli Bencana Sumatera community service programme, which deployed 30 students from 10 faculties and one school to Pidie Jaya and North Aceh from 31 January to 1 March 2026. In affected villages, the students helped teach at elementary and junior high schools, ran literacy activities, set up reading corners stocked with donated books, and gave residents waste management education.
Alumni
UGM keeps its graduates learning about sustainability through its partnership with the UGM Alumni Association (KAGAMA). To mark Wildlife Day, UGM and the KAGAMA central board co-hosted a webinar on wildlife conservation in Indonesia on 16 March 2025, bringing together university leaders and speakers from conservation organisations.
Alumni communities also run their own hands-on learning. In May 2025, the KAGAMA Tanaman Hias community held its first training for 25 members on caring for staghorn ferns, as part of an effort to conserve plants and build horticultural skills. In West Papua, KAGAMA alumni joined a UGM community service team to plant trees in Kampung Susweni, Manokwari.
References
- Eco-Paving Education programme in Getrakmoyan Village, Cirebon Regency
- Youth education on green marine coastal planning in North Bengkulu
- UGM coordinates the Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE) Yogyakarta
- Watershed rehabilitation in Tanjungwangi Village, Cicalengka
- Legal counselling for residents of Kebobang Village in Malang Regency
- UGM disaster psychologist trains student volunteers from Universitas Syiah Kuala
- Community service programme deployed in disaster-affected Sumatera