T

he European Union is granting its prestigious Erasmus+ scholarship to a record number of Indonesian students and lecturers in 2018, its envoy said over the weekend.

“This year, 240 students have been awarded a scholarship [...] this is the highest number of awardees since we introduced the program back in 2004,” said Vincent Guérend, EU Ambassador to Indonesia.

Funded by the EU, the Erasmus+ scholarship allow recipients to further their studies at two or more participating universities in EU member states.

Gilang Mentari Hamidy, who is to pursue a Master’s degree in security and cloud computing in Finland, said the program gave recipients the opportunity to expand their network for the future. “We need to utilize and maximize this opportunity,” he said.

According to the organizers, Germany was the most popular destination country for this year’s program.