IISMA 2024-2025: A Complete Reference for European Host Universities

Indonesia operates one of the world's fastest-growing government-funded student mobility programmes. From 1,000 awardees in its first year to more than 3,000 in 2024, the Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) has built a network of 140 partner institutions across 35 countries in just four years. A significant share of those partners are European universities. For international offices that have not yet engaged with the programme, this is a detailed reference on what IISMA is, what it asks of host institutions, and what European universities gain from participation.

IISMA is not a bilateral exchange in the conventional sense. Students arrive with their own full funding, covering tuition, accommodation, living expenses, and international travel. Host universities provide the academic environment, English-medium courses, and student support. The relationship is lighter than a formal partnership agreement with another institution and heavier than simply enrolling a visiting student through a standard mobility window. Understanding exactly where it sits in that spectrum is the starting point for any international office assessing whether to apply.

1. What IISMA Is: Programme Structure and Governance

The Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards was launched in 2021 as part of Indonesia's broader "Kampus Merdeka" (Free Campus) reform, an initiative by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (known in Indonesian as Kemdikbudristek) to open Indonesian higher education to international experience and competency-based learning.

IISMA sits within this reform as the international mobility strand: a government-funded scholarship enabling Indonesian undergraduate and vocational students to spend one semester at a partner university overseas. The programme is funded by the Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan, commonly known by its acronym LPDP, Indonesia's National Endowment Fund for Education. LPDP is the same body that funds Indonesia's postgraduate scholarship programmes, including the prestigious LPDP doctoral scholarships that send thousands of Indonesian students to universities in Europe, the United States, and Australia each year.

The operational structure of IISMA is centralised. The ministry selects host universities, manages the MoU process, and runs the student selection. Individual Indonesian universities apply for their students to participate and support them through the application, but the scholarship itself is a national government award, not an institutional one. This means that even small or less-prominent Indonesian universities can have students attend major European institutions if those students are selected through the national competition.

2. Growth From 1,000 to 3,000: The Scale Trajectory

The growth of IISMA over four years is striking in absolute terms. The programme started modestly, with 1,000 awardees in 2021. By 2022 that had risen to 1,100. The 2023 cohort numbered 1,984 awardees, nearly double the 2022 figure. In 2024, the Indonesian government targeted 3,000 to 3,300 awardees, distributed across 140 partner institutions in 35 countries.

This growth rate is not accidental. The Indonesian government has positioned IISMA as a flagship component of its higher education modernisation strategy, and has backed that positioning with sustained budget allocation through LPDP. For context, Indonesia has a higher education system of over 1,800 universities and approximately seven million enrolled students. The pool from which IISMA draws is enormous: the national selection process is competitive, and awardees represent a strong cohort by any measure.

The programme's growth also reflects deliberate policy ambition. Indonesian policymakers have cited the Korean government's Global Korea Scholarship and Japan's MEXT programme as reference points. IISMA is a direct attempt to build similar soft-power infrastructure while also producing a cohort of Indonesian graduates with genuine international experience. The 2024 target of 3,000 awardees was described by programme leadership at Universitas Gadjah Mada as "soaring" relative to original expectations.

3. Europe in the IISMA Network

Europe has been part of the IISMA partner network since the programme's early years, and its share has grown as the cohort has expanded. The United Kingdom is the largest European destination by total placements, with 841 UK placements recorded since the programme launched in 2021. This reflects the UK's established appeal as an English-medium academic destination, the concentration of globally ranked universities, and the early engagement of universities such as the University of Liverpool in building IISMA partnerships.

The Netherlands has become a significant European hub for IISMA. The country's widespread English-medium instruction at university level, strong international student infrastructure, and competitive academic reputation make it a natural fit. Known Dutch IISMA partners include the University of Groningen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Maastricht University, and the University of Twente. The Netherlands' position as a gateway market in the Internship Abroad network reflects a broader pattern: Dutch universities punch above their size in international mobility both inbound and outbound, and IISMA is part of that picture.

Beyond the Netherlands and UK, the European partner network spans multiple countries:

The pattern across European IISMA hosts is consistent: strong English-medium teaching capacity, active international offices, and an established culture of hosting visiting students from outside the European Higher Education Area. Universities that already have well-developed structures for non-EU student hosting, whether through bilateral exchange programmes or through commercial international student enrolment, tend to find IISMA integration straightforward.

4. What IISMA Students Look Like: Academic Profile and Eligibility

Understanding who IISMA students are matters for host institutions calibrating their expectations. These are not the full profile of Indonesian students in general: they are the subset that passes a national competitive selection process with explicit academic requirements.

To be eligible for IISMA, undergraduate students must be enrolled in at least their sixth semester (third year) of study at the time of application. They must hold a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 out of 4.0, roughly equivalent to an upper second-class honours threshold in the UK system, and they must demonstrate English proficiency to a minimum of IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL iBT 78. Vocational programme students have a slightly lower English threshold (IELTS 6.0 with TOEIC as an alternative) and apply from their fourth semester onward.

These are minimum thresholds, not typical scores. In practice, the IISMA selection is competitive, and students who secure a place at a partner university with the profile of, for instance, KTH Stockholm or the University of Groningen tend to present significantly higher academic records. Awardees placed at top-ranked European universities consistently score above the minimum and are drawn from Indonesia's most selective institutions, including Universitas Indonesia, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Universitas Gadjah Mada, and Institut Pertanian Bogor.

5. How IISMA Funding Works: What Is Covered and by Whom

The funding model is one of IISMA's most distinctive features from a host university perspective. Unlike many bilateral exchange students, who arrive with partial funding and depend on a combination of their home institution's support, host institution waivers, and personal resources, IISMA awardees arrive with comprehensive coverage arranged before departure.

LPDP provides funding for tuition at the host university, international travel to and from Indonesia, accommodation during the placement period, and a living allowance for day-to-day expenses. The specific amounts vary by destination country and reflect cost-of-living differences. For European destinations, living allowances are generally calibrated to mid-range student costs in the relevant city.

What this means for European host universities is structural: there is no institutional financial risk associated with hosting IISMA students. The university does not need to provide bursaries, accommodation guarantees, or financial top-ups. The student arrives funded. The host's obligation is to provide the academic programme and a supportive international student environment. In some cases, host universities do waive tuition fees as part of the MoU arrangement; in others, a nominal tuition fee is agreed between the university and the IISMA programme administration. Specific terms are negotiated during the MoU process.

6. Becoming an IISMA Host: Requirements and Process

European universities seeking to become IISMA hosts follow a process managed by the Directorate General of Higher Education within Indonesia's Ministry of Education. The core requirement is a Memorandum of Understanding between the host institution and the Indonesian Ministry. This MoU is non-trivial but not unusually complex by the standards of international partnership agreements. It formalises the university's commitment to accepting IISMA awardees, providing English-medium instruction, and supporting students through administrative processes such as visa applications, registration, and transcript issuance.

Host universities submit a formal application to be included in the IISMA partner list. Applications are reviewed annually, and existing partners may need to reapply each cycle to confirm their continued participation. The British Council has played a role in supporting the UK application process, coordinating between UK universities and the IISMA secretariat.

Beyond the MoU, the practical requirements for hosting IISMA students include:

• Capacity to enrol visiting students from outside the European Higher Education Area through an established non-degree or visiting student track
• English-medium courses appropriate to the student's field of study (IISMA students come from a wide range of disciplines including engineering, business, social sciences, agriculture, and the humanities)
• A point of contact in the international office for IISMA-specific coordination with the ministry and with the student before and during arrival
• Recognition of IISMA students in the institution's systems for insurance, library access, student support services, and accommodation referrals

Universities that already host Erasmus+ incoming students, or that have experience with other government scholarship visiting student programmes such as the Turing Scheme or DAAD, will find the IISMA integration process familiar in most respects. The additional element is the bilateral relationship with a non-European ministry, which adds some administrative steps but no fundamental change to the institutional hosting model.

7. Programme Tracks: Regular, Affirmation, Co-Funding, and IISMA-E

IISMA is not a single-track programme. European international offices should be aware of the different cohorts that may apply to their institution.

For European universities, the Regular and Affirmation tracks are the most relevant. The Co-funding track supplements the core programme and tends to place students at the same partner institutions. IISMA-E is directed at industry hosts rather than academic institutions, though universities with strong industry partnership networks or that offer placements through vocational programmes may engage with this track separately. Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania, for instance, has hosted IISMA-E students alongside its IISMA Regular cohort, with 30 IISMA-E students enrolled in the 2024-25 academic year alongside its regular IISMA cohort.

8. What European International Offices Need to Know

The strategic case for European universities engaging with IISMA rests on three things: access to a high-quality, pre-funded cohort; relationship-building with one of the world's largest higher education systems; and positioning within a programme whose scale and visibility in the Indo-Pacific region is growing rapidly.

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world, with a higher education participation rate that is increasing year on year. The LPDP scholarship ecosystem is one of the world's largest nationally managed international scholarship programmes. Building early institutional relationships with Indonesian government programmes creates a channel that will become more valuable as Indonesia's middle class expands and outbound mobility from the country increases. European universities that have established IISMA MoUs now are building relationships that were not available through bilateral agreement processes a decade ago.

For international offices doing a practical cost-benefit assessment: the administrative investment in becoming an IISMA host is moderate. The per-student complexity is low once the MoU and administrative track are established. The students are funded, qualified, and placed in English-medium courses alongside other international students. The main cost is coordination time in the first year of setup and a small ongoing administrative overhead for each cohort thereafter.

For universities already operating within the European international placement network, IISMA students represent an additional pipeline of visiting students that complements rather than competes with Erasmus+ inbound flows. Indonesian students come for different reasons, from a different context, and with different professional interests from the typical European exchange student. For employers engaging with university placement programmes in the Netherlands, UK, Germany, and beyond, this diversity in visiting student cohorts creates additional international hiring options, which is a consideration covered in our guides for placement partners.

European universities interested in becoming IISMA hosts should make initial contact with the IISMA secretariat at secretariat@iisma.id, or engage with the British Council in their country, which has supported multiple UK institutions through the partnership application process. Universities in the Netherlands, Germany, and other EU countries can also reach out through Internship Abroad Indonesia, the institutional platform for Indonesian student mobility in the European market, which maintains direct relationships with Indonesian government mobility programmes.

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