Netherlands to offer 200 full scholarships

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)