Partnership supports budding global citizens

A prestigious scholarship programme offered by the Indonesian Government has brought 10 undergraduate students to Otago in their quest to become global citizens.

Otago is a host university of the Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA), a highly competitive scholarship programme offering undergraduate Indonesian students the opportunity to study one semester at top universities worldwide.

The programme aims to enhance Indonesian students’ cross-cultural appreciation and understanding, develop a future-ready mindset and prepare the next generation of global citizens.

This is the second year Otago has hosted IISMA awardees.

University of Otago Regional Market Manager Sarah Ewing says the partnership with IISMA is an important part of strengthening Otago’s relationship with Indonesia and its educational institutes, building on existing academic collaborations with Indonesian universities.

“IISMA is a highly prestigious programme and host universities are top ranked universities from across the world. Being a part of the programme is our opportunity to showcase Otago and Aotearoa New Zealand.

“With the addition of the IISMA cohort, Indonesia is now our fifth largest country of international students by student numbers.”

ISMA awardees are the brightest of Indonesian students, Sarah says.

“Students from all over Indonesia apply for the scholarship. The selection process is incredibly competitive, only one per cent of applicants are offered a place.

“Awardees have a stringent programme to follow prior to departure, and requirements and reporting to fulfil during and after their semester abroad.”

Otago provides wraparound support for the cohort from the time they are selected, Sarah says.

“Apart from ongoing communication with the regional organiser in Indonesia, we also meet with the students in-person in Indonesia and at their arrival in Dunedin, organise their stay at Uniflats, setup welcome meetings, plan Aotearoa cultural experiences and have regular check-ins during their time here.

“For the 2024 cohort, we organised a meeting with PPI Dunedin Indonesian Community Association, which also had a representative of the Indonesian Embassy attend. It signifies the importance of Otago’s relationship with Indonesia and the IISMA programme.”

Otago provides a list of curated paper offerings for the students to pick from, selected to meet the outcomes of the IISMA programme, which include cross-cultural competency, trans-disciplinarity, and social intelligence among others, she says.

“Popular options this year are human thought and behaviour, cultural and social identities, marine biology: the living ocean, and business and society.”

Awardees are considered representatives of Indonesia and as part of their scholarship requirements share Indonesian culture at their host universities, Sarah says.

“The 2024 IISMA cohort hosted a cultural day at OUSA in August and students also join various student clubs.”

Once they have completed their semester abroad, IISMA cohorts are part of  IISMA Alumni , Sarah says.

“This is an opportunity for us to create ambassadors for Otago and study in Aotearoa New Zealand, not just for future IISMA students, but also for those considering postgraduate study.

“We want all IISMA students coming to Otago to have a positive experience and to take that back with them to Indonesia. There is a lot of connection there, and my experience has been word of a good experience tends to spread like wildfire.

“Our hope is to grow the Indonesian cohort and have more students select Otago as their university of choice.”

So far, the two IISMA cohorts to visit Otago have been wonderful, she says.

“They're just great students, so positive and energetic and happy about everything. It's amazing.”

~ Kōrero by Sandra French, Adviser, Internal Communications