65 IPB students get German scholarships

JAKARTA: Germany has awarded scholarships to 65 students from tsunami-hit Aceh and North Sumatra studying at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), the German Embassy in Jakarta said.

In a simple ceremony on Wednesday held on the IPB campus in Bogor, Sur Place scholarships -- which were funded by the Donors' Association for the Promotion of Science and Humanities in Germany -- were given to 65 needy postgraduate students.

The ceremony was chaired by IPB rector Prof. A. Ansori Mattjik and attended by Dorothea Roland, the deputy secretary-general of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Andre Scholz, the embassy's press and cultural attache.

The scholarships are part of a larger aid program of the DAAD for tsunami victims.

"Since early this year, a total of 865 students from Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatra studying at universities all over Indonesia were given grants for a maximum period of one year, Scholz told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Out of 865, at least 703 scholarships are funded by the German Federal Ministry of Developmental Cooperation. -- JP