Indonesian Government Scholarships for International Students 

The Kemitraan Negara Berkembang (KNB) Scholarship is a financial assistance offered by the Indonesian Government to International students coming from developing countries to pursue their master degree in Indonesian Universities. Initially, the idea of offering scholarships by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia for the student coming from the NAM member countries was mandated in the 10th Conference of Heads of States of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries commenced in Bandung from 1st – 6th September 1992. Following that mandate, in 1993 the Government of the Republic of Indonesia started offering postgraduate (master degree) scholarships to students from the NAM member countries.

Since 2002, due to the substantial change in the international political constellation, the use of the term “NAM” in this program was considered irrelevant. The program name then changed to Kemitraan Negara Berkembang (Developing Countries Partnership) Scholarship or KNB Scholarship. Consequently, the program have been widely offered to students, not only to the NAM member countries, but also to other developing countries such as Thailand, Fiji, Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria, Madagascar, Suriname, Pakistan, Guyana, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Vanuatu.

In 2015, the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia took over the KNB Scholarship management. Some improvements have been made to better the scholarship management, both administratively and operationally. There are a couple of significant adjustments have been made so far: the scholarship coverage and quota were expanded and 2 prominent Universities were added to host the program (it makes a total of 16 host Universities).