Impressive! UMY Attracts More Students from Asia
The University of Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) is further cementing its position on the international stage. UMY is now attracting prospective students from countries in South and Central Asia.
This was conveyed by the Rector of UMY, Prof. Dr. Achmad Nurmandi, during the Open Senate Meeting for the Annual Rector’s Report & Speech for the 45th Anniversary of the University of Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta in the Ballroom of the UMY Student Dormitory Building.
In his presentation, Nurmandi presented data on UMY’s achievements over the past year. In terms of student numbers, UMY currently has 23,007 active students.
Of that number, 4,176 are new students. The distribution is as follows: 2,523 students from the island of Java, 864 from Sumatra, 392 from Kalimantan, 11 from Bali, 114 from Sulawesi, 117 from Nusa Tenggara, 115 from Maluku, and 40 from Papua.
“This means that around 50 percent of UMY students come from outside the island of Java,” Nurmandi explained in his presentation at the Ballroom of the UMY Student Dormitory Building on Saturday (16/5/2026).
In addition to domestic students, UMY is now also attracting international students. Nurmandi said that thousands of students are interested in studying at UMY.
“The average number of international student applicants per year is 7 to 8 thousand, from the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels. The majority of international student applicants are now coming from Asia, especially South and Central Asia,” he said.
“This is an encouraging statistic, meaning that UMY is starting to become known in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, and so on,” Nurmandi continued.
This is partly due to UMY having received recognition from international ranking institutions. According to Nurmandi, in 2025, UMY received recognition from institutions such as Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE WUR) and Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (QS WUR).
“In the QS Ranking, UMY received a ranking of around 1,200, and THE received a ranking of around 1,500,” Nurmandi said.
“However, there are several fields of study that have received recognition from THE. For example, law received recognition in the world’s top 600, business and management in the world’s top 800, and social and political sciences in the world’s top 800. This means that the work of UMY lecturers and students in these fields has been recognised and cited worldwide,” he concluded.
(apu/apu)