IO – Already with 4,619 alumni, StuNed celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The excited celebration of having succeeded in providing scholarships utilized to help the education and development programs of young Indonesians who are expected to become Indonesia’s future leaders was held at Erasmus Huis, the Dutch Embassy in Rasuna Said Jakarta, Tuesday, 10 September 2019. The program was attended by not only the alumni of StuNed, but also partners and stakeholders highlighting the impact that StuNed has provided in 20 years, and setting goals in the future.
StuNed (Studeren in Netherland) is a full-funding scholarship program, and this program is a form of bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and the Netherlands. Since 2000, the program has been funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta and is managed by Nuffic Neso Indonesia, an overseas association of Dutch organizations for the internationalization of education in the Netherlands (Nuffic).
For 20 years, StuNed has provided support and contribution to the Indonesian population in various fields of agriculture, investment climate, water management, and security and rule of law. This makes StuNed the most prominent scholarship program, compared to other scholarship programs Indonesians.
In his remarks, the Dutch Ambassador for SRHR & HIV / AIDS and Director of the Social Development Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lambert Grijns, said that the quality of Education is very important for everyone. Education is not only the backbone for one individual but for all societies in order to create innovation, foster awareness, and strengthen institutions.
One of the 2009 alumni from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, Maria Goretti Ikaryana, who now works at the ICRC, the International Committee of Red Cross as an Economic Security Delegate, specifically gave a message to Indonesian scholarship seekers not to give up easily to get the StuNed scholarship given the number of interested students applying to get it. The graduate of the Faculty of English at Sanata Darma University Yogyakarta who will be working in Palestine next month also shares experiences while studying in the Netherlands to be more critical, accept differences, and be more confident to be involved in international relations even though it was very hard at first. (ohw)