Field Reports
Turkey and Indonesia open two new scholarship funds for Palestinian students
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
Two new routes to a university place opened for Palestinian students this summer, one in Ankara and one in Jakarta. Both are funded and announced; both still owe applicants the practical details.
In Turkey, the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities, known as YTB, signed a protocol with the defence manufacturer Baykar for a Palestine Joint Scholarship Programme covering 200 Palestinian students — 160 undergraduates, 30 master's candidates and 10 doctoral researchers.
Baykar will carry tuition, accommodation, return airfare and project costs for the length of each degree, YTB said on its official site. The protocol was signed by the company's board chairman, Selçuk Bayraktar, and YTB's president, Abdulhadi Turus, at the Özdemir Bayraktar National Technology Centre on 19 June.
The programme runs under the Türkiye Bursları umbrella, among the most complete packages anywhere — fees, monthly stipend, housing and a language year. YTB has not yet published an application window or selection criteria for this particular track.
In Indonesia, the national zakat agency BAZNAS allocated Rp22 billion to a first phase of scholarships for Palestinian students, drawn from a Palestine humanitarian fund that has collected Rp200 billion.
"This money is a trust from the Indonesian people, earmarked from the beginning for the people of Palestine," the agency's chairman, Sodik Mudjahid, said. Amirsyah Tambunan, secretary-general of the Indonesian Ulema Council, tied the programme to building the capacity of a Palestinian generation that will rebuild its own country.
The announcement came on 24 July at the opening of the Indonesian Islamic Congress, coordinated between BAZNAS, the Ulema Council and the education and culture ministry.
What is settled in both cases is the money and the institutions behind it. What is not yet published is the number of Indonesian places and the host universities, and the Turkish track's application date. Until those appear, every deadline is a date to verify on the programme's own page.
Times of Palestine is adding both programmes to the scholarship guide it keeps current in Arabic and English.
