Funded Masters for Indonesian Students Abroad (2026)

Most "funded masters abroad" guides jump straight to Fulbright, Chevening, and Erasmus Mundus without mentioning that Indonesia runs the largest domestically-funded outbound scholarship program of any country covered on this site. LPDP deserves to be the starting point for an Indonesian applicant's research, not an afterthought, so that's where this one begins before covering the international options genuinely open alongside it.

LPDP: Indonesia's own funding engine, at real scale

LPDP, the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education, is a state endowment fund under Indonesia's Ministry of Finance, established in December 2011 to help fulfil the country's constitutional commitment to spend 20% of the state budget on education. It funds both master's (S2) and doctoral (S3) study, at universities inside Indonesia and abroad, and has produced approximately 58,749 recipients since inception, as of May 2026. For the 2026 cycle, LPDP announced a total quota of 5,750 awards, comprising 1,000 undergraduate places under a newly introduced Beasiswa Garuda track, 4,000 master's and doctoral places, the historical core of the program, and 750 medical specialist and sub-specialist places. Eligibility requires Indonesian citizenship and a minimum GPA of 3.00 out of 4.00 for master's applicants, with English-proficiency thresholds that differ by destination and degree level, for example, IELTS 6.0 for a domestic master's versus 6.5 for one abroad. LPDP also carries a return-and-serve commitment in Indonesia, generally around twice the length of the funded degree.

Fulbright and AMINEF: one of the few countries funding a full PhD abroad

Unlike several other countries where Fulbright is master's-only, Indonesia's program, administered locally by AMINEF, the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation, funds both a two-year Fulbright Master's Degree Scholarship and a three-year Fulbright Doctoral Degree (PhD) Scholarship, both covering tuition and a stipend and excluding medicine or patient-care fields. Master's applicants need a bachelor's degree with a GPA of at least 3.0 and a TOEFL ITP score of at least 550; PhD applicants need a completed master's degree and a TOEFL ITP score of at least 575. Both tracks carry a five-year return-to-Indonesia service commitment. The AY2026-2027 cycle ran from 15 October 2025 to 18 February 2026. Our Fulbright Foreign Student Program application guide covers the general selection process that applies on top of these country-specific thresholds.

Chevening: master's only, standard rules

Chevening maintains a dedicated Indonesia country page and, as everywhere it operates, funds a one-year taught master's degree at any UK university, not a PhD. The standard global eligibility applies: at least two years of work experience and a two-year return commitment after the degree. The 2026-2027 cycle closes on 6 October 2026. Our guide to writing a Chevening personal statement covers the application format in full.

Not eligible: the Commonwealth Scholarship

Indonesia was colonized by the Netherlands, not Britain, and has never been part of the Commonwealth of Nations, so it doesn't appear on the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission's eligible-country lists for either the master's or PhD tracks. Some scholarship roundups incorrectly list Indonesia as eligible for "Commonwealth Shared Scholarships," a claim worth treating with real skepticism since it contradicts the Commission's own published country list.

Australia Awards: Indonesia's longest-running partner

Australia Awards describes Indonesia as its largest and longest-running partner country, funding both master's and PhD study. Current annual quota and stipend figures shift from cycle to cycle, so check Australia Awards Indonesia's own site directly for this year's exact numbers rather than relying on older figures that circulate in secondary scholarship roundups.

Erasmus Mundus and DAAD: genuine but globally competitive

Indonesian applicants qualify for Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters as a standard non-EU "Partner Country" scholar, eligible for the full funding package, tuition, travel, and a living allowance, on any joint master's program, competing globally rather than against a fixed Indonesia-specific quota. Germany's DAAD runs several open tracks Indonesian applicants can apply to directly, including STEM-focused scholarships, the EPOS scheme for development-related postgraduate courses, and a dedicated DAAD-SEARCA track for agriculture, funding both master's and, depending on the specific program, doctoral study.

Why professor outreach still matters even with LPDP in the picture

LPDP is unusually generous by global standards, but it typically expects you to already hold, or be actively pursuing, admission to a specific university program as part of its own process, it funds a place you've secured rather than helping you find one. That makes early, direct contact with a potential supervisor genuinely useful groundwork even for an LPDP-track applicant, not a separate parallel track. GradScoutFunding searches professors by field and country, confirms they're actively publishing, and drafts a personalized outreach email grounded in a real recent paper of theirs, for you to review and send yourself. Your first 2 credits are free, no card required.

Putting a plan together

With LPDP's own cycle, Fulbright's October-to-February window, and Chevening's October close date all landing at different points, map every deadline you're genuinely eligible for onto one calendar and work backward from securing university admission first, since that single step feeds directly into LPDP's own process and strengthens every other application at the same time. Academic transcripts and reference letters take real weeks to assemble properly, starting that process now, rather than once a specific window opens, is what turns several separate long-shot applications into one coordinated plan.

Common questions