“These days, a great number of scholarships to study  either in Indonesia or abroad are available. It depends on us whether we really want to find out more information on the scholarships or not, “ Inty Dienasari said. Inty is a student counselor at Nuffic Neso Indonesia who gave a presentation on Study in Holland. The presentation was held in the Senate West Meeting Room of UNY on Friday (9/13). More than 50 students and alumni enthusiastically attended the presentation.

Nuffic Neso is an organization which is based in Den Haag, holland. This nonprofit organization supports students to experience international higher education, research, education, and professional education in holland and Indonesia and aims to ease the access to higher education throughout the world.

Working for about seven years in Nuffic Neso, she has a lot to tell the students about the benefits of studying in holland. In fact, she is experienced in getting the scholarship. To start with, all of the subject areas available for the grantee candidates are international study programs, so that the lectures are delivered in English. Communication is not a problem for international students since 95% of Dutches speak English. Indonesian students do not need to worry about finding Indonesian food. “Many restaurants provide Indonesian cuisine are available. For Indonesian students, Holland is ‘home away from home’,” Inty said.

The participants were really enthusiastic to listen to the explanation and asked a lot of questions about studying in Holland.  Among the scholarships offered are Stuned, Netherlands Fellowship Programme, and Orange Tulip Scholarship. Stuned (Studeren in Nederland) is for master’s programs and short courses in the form of capacity building. The program is aimed at facilitating individuals to be agents of change for Indonesia. This full scholarship covers the tuition fee and living cost and requires minimum 2 years of working experience.

The Netherlands Fellowship Programme, meanwhile, offers 84,000 euros for four years for the grantees. The selection of this scholarship is very competitive and the applicants are required to have at least three years working experience in the same field and an acceptance letter from the university conducting the study program.  

The last scholarship, Orange Tulip Scholarship, is a bit different from the ones mentioned before. Unlike the other two, this scholarship does not require working experience, so that fresh graduates are allowed to apply. The applicants can apply for this scholarship before being accepted by the universities. According to the schedule, the application for the scholarship will be open in November 2013.

Inty also added that other than the previous scholarships, there are other scholarships for studying in the Netherlands such as  Beasiswa Unggulan, Erasmus Mundus and DIKTI scholarship for PhD programs. To apply for the scholarships, applicants must be well informed and do some long term preparations such as contacting professors at the desired university, writing a good motivation statement, and having the required TOEFL IBT or IELTS scores. For more information about the scholarships, applicants can visit http://www.nesoindonesia.or.id or send an email to inty.dienasari@nesoindonesia.or.id. (tw)