LPDP Expands List of Top Overseas Universities for Phase II 2026

The Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) has expanded its list of preferred overseas universities for the second phase of 2026. Director of Scholarships at LPDP, Dwi Larso, stated that the initial list of 17 top universities for all programmes has now been increased to 31 institutions. “It consists of 17 universities for all programmes and 14 additional universities specifically for STEM programmes,” he said at the Ministry of Finance building in Jakarta on Monday, 29 June 2026. He noted that this addition aligns with the focus on producing graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), with LPDP currently prioritising 80 per cent of its scholarships for STEM graduates. The agency has also adjusted the university list in line with changes in global university rankings, taking into account international rankings such as QS. Additionally, LPDP has modified the English proficiency requirements for affirmative action applicants targeting overseas universities in the second selection phase of 2026. Dwi Larso explained that affirmative action applicants are now required to submit an English proficiency certificate with a minimum score of 500 issued by a domestic higher education institution. Prospective applicants no longer need to attach TOEFL, PTE, IELTS, or Duolingo certificates. “There are 35 universities that can issue this certificate,” he said at the Ministry of Finance in Central Jakarta on Monday, 29 June 2026. Another requirement stipulates that if a prospective applicant already holds an Unconditional Letter of Acceptance (LoA) for their chosen programme and LPDP partner university, they are not required to possess an English proficiency certificate. However, these two conditions do not apply to Specialist/Subspecialist Doctor Scholarships, Special Cooperation Scholarships, Partnership Scholarships, and Ministry/Agency Cooperation programmes. The list of top universities includes Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, Babson College, Tsinghua University, The University of Tokyo, Université PSL, Technical University of Munich (TUM), University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Imperial College London, and London School of Economics (LSE). The additional universities are University of Toronto, Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Peking University, The University of Hong Kong, National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Paris-Saclay University, ETH Zurich, and Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).