Yogyakarta hosts Holland Education Fair

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

A wide range of educational and scholarship programs were on offer here Thursday, at the one-day Holland Education Fair organized by the Netherlands Education Support Office (NESO) Indonesia.

The event, the third education fair organized by NESO Indonesia so far this year, featured 19 universities.

Jakarta and Bandung in West Java hosted the previous two fairs. The next event will be in Surabaya, East Java.

"In total, for the 2008-2009 academic year we are offering a total of 1,300 study programs, all taught in English, and thus there is no need for Indonesian students to learn Dutch first before joining any of the study programs on offer," NESO Indonesia director Marrik Bellen said.

Bellen said the Dutch government also was offering some 200 scholarships for Indonesian students for post-graduate studies in the Netherlands.

New graduates from undergraduate programs, with no working experience, for example, can apply for a scholarship from the HSP Huygens scholarship program.

Young professionals who want to join a master's degree program, a short course or a tailor-made training program can apply for scholarships from StuNed or the Netherlands Fellowship Program.

"Some 500 Indonesian students are flying to Holland every year to study. Some 200 of them are on scholarship while the rest are studying on their own expense," Bellen said.

He underlined that quality, not quantity, was the main focus of Dutch universities.

"Quality is still our main concern, apart from maintaining our internationalization in education by having international students in our universities."