Netherlands to offer 200 full scholarships

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Dutch government will grant up to 200 full scholarships this year to Indonesian professionals to take post-graduate studies at various universities in the Netherlands, according to an official.

Under a program called StuNed, funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the scholarships are available for mid-career professionals, including government officials, lecturers, non-governmental organization activists and journalists.

"Our overall aim for the scholarships program is to help improve less-developed countries in the empowerment of manpower, thus (help) achieve the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals to halve global poverty by 2015," said Monique Soesman, head of scholarships department at Netherlands' Education Centre (NEC), which has been assigned to run the program.

Monique was speaking at a press conference held on Saturday to announce the opening of the two-day Holland Education Fair 2005.

StuNed, a program specifically for Indonesia, was developed after former chief economics minister Kwik Kian Gie, a previous student in the Netherlands, lodged a request in 2000 to the Netherlands to run a scholarship program for Indonesia to help with its development.

Before that year, most Indonesians sought scholarships offered by, among others, the United States, British and Australian governments.

NEC has conducted road shows in 29 cities in Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Papua, Sulawesi, East and West Nusa Tenggara to promote StuNed.

The subjects available under the StuNed program include education, water management, sanitation and the environment, society empowerment, good governance and human rights, gender, culture (strengthening cultural identity) and public health, which focuses on HIV/AIDS-related issues and reproductive health.

"The Netherlands has high quality in education. Our democratic and egalitarian society and culture, where democracy instead of hierarchy dominates the country's lifestyle, is also practiced in the education system," said Monique.

"Teachers and students have almost the same level, thus encouraging good discussions between the two."

Monique said that because of the Netherlands' long history in education, where the first university was founded in 1575, modern teaching methods had evolved, enabling them to receive 17 Nobel prizes in science.(005)