TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The interest of Indonesian students to continue their studies at universities in Austria showed a tendency to increase from year to year, the Austrian ambassador said as cited by Antara News.

"As many as 20 students had undergone interview for a scholarship program provided by ASEA-UNINET this year in order to continue their studies, especially in post-graduate and doctoral degrees," the Austrian ambassador to Indonesia, Andreas Karabaczek, told Antara News on Monday.

According to Andreas, two professors from Austria came to Indonesia recently to interview the students who will continue their studies in the country.

The ASEA-UNINET scholarship program was jointly established by the Austrian Academic Exchange Service (OAD), the Ministry of University Affairs in Thailand as well as the Indonesian Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture.

The ASEA-UNINET constitutes a network of ASEAN-European Academic University established by Austria, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam in 1994.

The association supports the knowledge exchange among 72 Universties as partners like the universities in Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Slovakia and Spain) and in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam).

The main activity of the networks is to manage and provide financial assistance for the exchange of experts and research projects and transfer of technology related to the activity.

ANTARA | ADITIA MARULI