The Social Distance of Diponegoro University Students toward Minority Ethnic Groups

The main aim of this paper is to measure the social distance between Diponegoro University (Undip) students and minority groups (ethnicity). Social distance is the degree of mindful understanding, compassionate attitude, and sympathetic behavior between two individuals or between individuals with groups that are different from themselves. Understanding the degree of social distance among people from different groups is important in a multicultural society like Indonesia. Diversity in a multicultural society has the consequence that social harmony must be built based on tolerance for differences, especially by understanding and accepting the presence of minority groups. Higher education as the last educational institution has an important role in directing the perspective of students to be more empathetic and tolerant to minority groups. This study uses a survey method involving 415 students from 31481 active students in 2019. The research measures student attitudes related to the association of individuals from a certain ethnic group (Javanese, Chinese, Sundanese, Batak, Minang, and others: Bugis, Banjar, Arabic, Malay) to Undip (any association, visiting, enroll as students). The findings show that in general most of the respondents perceive no social distance toward other student's ethnicity backgrounds. However, there is 35 percent of the respondents who perceive the social distance toward people with Papua ethnicity.