More than 200 Indonesians Awarded Netherlands Scholarships
05 Oct 2007
The Netherlands remains to be the European country with largest number of scholarships for Indonesia
The Netherlands Education Support Office (NESO) Indonesia and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has awarded scholarships to more than 200 young Indonesian professionals to pursue a master programme in the Netherlands for the academic year 2007/2008. They have been awarded scholarships through several Netherlands scholarships programmes, such as StuNed (study in the Netherlands).
In his speech the Minister Plenipotentiary and Deputy Head of Mission of the Royal Netherlands Kingdom, Mr. Ad Koekkoek, congratulated the fellows and reminded them that they will follow in the footsteps of the 1100 Indonesians who have received a fellowship from the Government of The Netherlands, through the StuNed Scholarship Program. According to Mr. Koekkoek this program is an important component of the development cooperation between Indonesia and The Netherlands, and it also enables both countries to enhance their understanding about each others’ culture.
The StuNed scholarship program is a bilateral cooperation between the Netherlands and Indonesia focussed on generating and strengthening institutional capacity in development relevant sectors such as water and sanitation, environment, education and HIV/AIDS prevention, as well as cross cutting themes such as gender and good governance. The StuNed Scholarship Program is targeting young professionals working in Indonesian institutions relevant for development, who want to increase their academic knowledge and skills by pursuing a Masters Degree, or by attending a short diploma course at an Institute of Higher Education in The Netherlands.
“With the support from the Embassy of the Netherlands, NESO Indonesia is proud to be able to manage the StuNed scholarship program since 2000. The Netherlands is still the European country which provides the largest number of scholarships for Indonesia. This shows the commitment from the Netherlands to support the development in many sectors in Indonesia, including in higher education. This is my first year I am involved in the StuNed scholarship program, I expect the awardees will contribute to the Indonesian development in the future,” said Mr. Marrik Bellen.
Head of Scholarship Department Monique Drenthem Soesman said,” the StuNed program is subject to the Dutch policy for development co-operation which aims at achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals. It means the StuNed scholarship programs enable the awardees to support the achievement of the MDG’s in Indonesia through their institutions. I hope that the institutions will fully support their staff members as they will finally benefit from their gained knowledge in the Netherlands.”
Apart from StuNed, the Netherlands also provides Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP) awards to 14 Indonesians to pursue their master or short course program, five Indonesians are awarded a HSP Huygens Program award and six Indonesians receive an award through the Indonesia’s Young Leaders Program to pursue Islamic Studies in Leiden University.
Starting per 2007, the Indonesian government through the Ministry of Information and Communication (DEPKOMINFO) also introduces a new scholarship program. This is part of the commitment to strengthening the capacity of human resources in Indonesia. A number of 48 out of the total number of 76 DEPKOMINFO scholarship awardees chose the Netherlands to pursue a master program (40) and for PhD studies (9). The Netherlands was selected by the Ministry to be a destination country for the DEPKOMINFO awardees.
The total number of 240 scholarship awardees to the Netherlands, are invited to attend the pre-departure briefing in which they will receive all kinds of practical information including on Study In the Netherlands and about culture shock; they will be able to meet their fellow students going to the same universities in the Netherlands as well as alumni. The event is part of the preparation prior to leaving for the Netherlands in August or September 2007.