LPDP Adds 14 Top Universities for STEM Fields

The government has added 14 leading global universities to the priority destination list for the LPDP scholarship, specifically for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, as part of efforts to support human resource needs in national strategic industries.

Head of LPDP’s Communication Sub-Division, Risqi Sita Novanti, stated that the addition complements the previous list of 17 top universities which were prioritised for all fields of study. ‘Previously there were only 17 top universities. Now, 14 more universities have been added for STEM fields,’ Risqi said during a discussion at the Jakarta Kreatif Festival on Sunday.

Risqi explained that the move was made because the government is prioritising human resource development that can support eight national strategic industries. ‘Now our priority must support national priority programmes to align with supporting eight strategic industries such as food security, the creative economy, and industrialisation,’ she said.

She detailed that the 17 previously prioritised top universities include the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, Technical University of Munich, Université Paris Sciences & Lettres, London School of Economics and Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Babson College, California Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Tokyo, and Tsinghua University.

Meanwhile, the additional 14 universities specifically prioritised for STEM include Peking University, The University of Hong Kong, National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Paris-Saclay University, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), ETH Zurich, University of Toronto, Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

Risqi added that the government is also expanding the scope of priority programmes, not only for pure STEM courses but also for programmes related to the development of strategic sectors. She said the expansion of the university list is expected to provide more options for prospective scholarship recipients while improving the quality of Indonesia’s human resources to meet future national development needs. ‘The majority are prioritised for STEM fields, namely science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. And also STEM-related fields such as law, economics, public policy, and public administration,’ she said.