By Anastasya Lavenia Yudi
Copyright tempo
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Indonesia’s Education Fund Management Agency (LPDP) will limit the number of scholarship recipients or awardees for the 2025-2026 period. This decision was announced by the Acting Chief Executive Officer of LPDP, Sudarto, during a working meeting with the House of Representatives’ (DPR) Commission XI.According to Sudarto, the number of LPDP scholarship applicants has drastically increased this year, reaching a total of 78,588 applicants. The number of participants who passed the Phase I selection in 2025 is 1,492 people, while the Phase II selection is still ongoing. “However, the maximum number of awardees we will accept this year is only around four thousand,” Sudarto said at the Parliament Complex, Jakarta, on Tuesday, September 16, 2025.For comparison, the number of LPDP scholarship applicants in 2023 was 33,396, of whom 9,358 passed the selection process. In 2024, 52,842 people applied, and 8,592 passed the selection process.Sudarto stated that the restriction for 2025-2025 is due to an excessive number of scholarship recipients in collaboration between LPDP and the Ministry of Research and Technology, the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Ministry of Religious Affairs in previous years. “Therefore, in these two years, 2025-2026, we may be very limited in accepting the number of applicants, even though the number of applicants has increased sharply,” Sudarto said.According to Sudarto’s presentation, the number of scholarship recipients through the collaboration between the LPDP and the Ministries of Research and Technology, as well as Education and Culture, increased dramatically in 2023, reaching 319,145 awardees, including those receiving degree and non-degree scholarships. This number was significantly higher than the 51,107 awardees in the previous years.Sudarto mentioned that the LPDP will increase the number of scholarship recipients once again in 2027. “Based on the cash flow projection we conducted in 2025-2026, we will indeed limit the number of new awardees, but we will maintain the ongoing ones. In 2027, we will increase the number of awardees again,” he said.As of August 31, 2025, the endowment fund managed by LPDP amounted to Rp154.11 trillion. Meanwhile, the income realization until August 31, 2025, was Rp6.296 trillion, and the expenditure realization reached Rp6.171 trillion.Editor’s Choice: 4,000 Students to Receive LPDP Funding in 2026, Prabowo SaysClick here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News
