LPDP Scholarship Officially Opens, Check the Priority Fields of Study

Registration for the Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP) scholarship Phase II 2026 officially opened on Tuesday (30/6/2026). LPDP is targeting at least 80% of scholarship recipients to come from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields and related strategic industries. LPDP President Director Yon Arsal stated that this policy direction aligns with the need to strengthen human resources to support the Indonesia Emas 2045 vision. “Our STEM increase is ongoing. In 2025 it was 66 to 69%, in 2026 it is at 74%. We will try to reach a minimum of 80% for STEM and STEM-related fields,” Yon said during a media briefing at the Djuanda Building of the Ministry of Finance, Jakarta, Monday (29/6/2026). Yon explained that STEM fields are a focus because Indonesia requires talent capable of supporting economic transformation, technological mastery, and the development of national strategic industries. The priority STEM strategic industry fields include food, energy, defence, digitalisation including artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors, health, downstream processing, maritime, advanced manufacturing and materials, as well as entrepreneurship and the creative industry. Beyond pure STEM, Yon said the institution also supports STEM-related fields, which are non-STEM disciplines that directly underpin strategic industries, such as business, economics, law, and public policy. Meanwhile, a maximum of 20% of scholarship recipients will be directed towards SHARE fields, which cover Social, Humanities, Arts for People, Religious Studies, and Economics. These fields are maintained to support social, cultural, educational, religious, economic, and public policy development. LPDP Scholarship Director Dwi Larso said that starting in 2026, applicants are no longer categorised simply by general, affirmative, or civil servant/military/police labels. Applicants are now directed to choose programmes according to national needs, particularly STEM, strategic industries, STEM-related, SHARE, as well as other schemes such as co-funding and acceleration. “The nation states that we need STEM, supporting eight strategic industries, there is the creative industry, there is STEM-related. So every applicant must choose the STEM menu or the SHARE menu, because this is what the nation needs,” Dwi said. Dwi noted that the minimum 80% target for STEM and related fields was already evident in the Phase I 2026 selection. Out of a total of 32,794 Phase I applicants, around 86% or 28,000 applicants registered for STEM fields. Registration for LPDP Phase II 2026 is open from 30 June to 31 July 2026. The programmes opened include the STEM Strategic Industry Scholarship, SHARE Scholarship, Acceleration Scholarship at Top Universities, Sports Scholarship, and the National Research and Innovation Talent Scholarship via the Doctor by Research pathway.