The University of Pécs is selected to be a host university in the Indonesian Scholarship Program of Excellence

41 Indonesian students are spending the autumn semester at the University of Pécs. This opportunity has been made possible by the university's participation in the Indonesian government's new scholarship program of excellence. A total of 240 universities from all over the world applied for participating in the program, but only 60 were selected as host institutions.

This year, for the first time, the Indonesian Government announced the Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA), a semester-long scholarship program for Indonesian students to study at the world's most prestigious universities.

The scholarship program is designed to accommodate undergraduate students to spend one semester at top universities to study, experience the culture of the host countries, and engage in practical assignments to improve their academic skills. The program aims to mobilize 1,000 students overall in the first year, and 10,000 students in subsequent years.

There was a competitive application process among the universities in the international higher education market to be selected as host universities. The International Centre of the University of Pécs applied with its study abroad program, which has been running successfully for many years. The application submitted was successful, and as a result 41 students will spend the autumn semester at the University of Pécs.

The number of nominated students is an indication of the success of the application, as this represents the largest group of students to attend a single institution in the program for a semester.

Of the Hungarian universities that applied, the University of Szeged was the only other institution accepted into the program.

The International Centre recently organized an online information session for the 41 Indonesian students and their sending universities. The students will attend courses offered by the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences during the autumn semester.

One of the key strategic objectives of the Internationalization Program is to enrich the university’s international educational portfolio with fee-based, short-term programs. There is an increasing demand in the international higher education market for the short-term programs such as semester-long study abroad opportunities as well as summer and winter courses. The Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards is an excellent example illustrating this trend.

The participation of the University of Pécs in the new Indonesian scholarship program will contribute to deepening the cooperation with the Indonesian universities and it will also greatly enhance the international recognition of the university.