February 24, 2015, by International students

ASEAN Masters Scholarship

Making the decision to pursue a masters degree when already having a comfortable job and a promising career is tough. I kept considering which one would have more added value, is it a certification or a masters degree? I took a leap of faith and finally came up with decision to pursue a masters degree outside Indonesia. Continuing education is a huge investment for me, because I have to sacrifice time and also money, for tuition fees and living costs that I could have used to develop a more stable career.

Realizing that it was a serious decision, I put several things into consideration in choosing a university: the duration of the program, university ranking, the curriculum, and the overall fee I should spend. I decided to go to the UK because the duration of the program is only one year. This means a shorter break from the workforce and lower tuition fees. I finally decided to apply to The University of Nottingham because of its reputation as one of top 100 QS universities. Additionally, the program that I applied to has a curriculum that is in line with my career objective to be an IT business analyst. Furthermore, living costs in Nottingham are relatively lower than in any other cities in the UK.

There is a huge gap in tuition fees between UK/EU students and international students. International students’ fees are a lot higher than than UK/EU students’ tuition fees. Even though it is only a one-year program, which also means a lower cost, it was still unaffordable for me. Thus, while waiting for the Letter of Acceptance, I tried to search for any information about a scholarship either from the government or from the University to apply for.

One of scholarships that I applied for was the ASEAN Masters Scholarship provided by the UoN International Office. This scholarship was for students who have nationality or are permanently domiciled in one of the ASEAN member countries – Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. I read information about this scholarship from the University of Nottingham website. The information and instructions to apply for this scholarship are clear and straightforward. All I had to do was to download the application form, to fill in personal data, to answer all the questions regarding my motivation and future plans, and then to send them back via email before the deadline. This is the most efficient way for me because I did not have to send the hardcopy of document that would be quite costly and take more time. The scholarship selection result was announced on time by email. I am very proud that I was selected as an awardee from a big pool of outstanding applicants. Accepting the scholarship offer was also very practical. The only things I needed to do were to fill in the form, to sign it then to send back the scanned version of the signed form.

After living for four months in Nottingham, it turns out that choosing UoN has been one of the best decisions in my life. I really love its public spaces, good transportation service, and the city’s cleanliness. There are also a lot of comfortable public and open spaces in the university area with a very unique and beautiful architecture view. In addition, what I like the most from the university is its amazing support for students, ranging from laptop loan, language support, career support, and a lot of extracurricular programs that help to develop student skills.

In short, the ASEAN Scholarship helps me to realize one of my milestones. Acknowledgement from an international institution and to be successfully selected as one of ten awardee winners among all the ASEAN candidates personally does boost my confidence. In addition, the scholarship celebration ceremony gave me opportunities to meet, to interact and to exchange ideas with many outstanding people with rich experiences from various cultural backgrounds. This two hour event has inspired me. Now, as I am here with all of the challenges I am facing, I want to use this one year to live life to the fullest, to try new things that I have not done before, to elevate my skills, to overcome my fears, and no less importantly, to do what I love.

Meredita and the other ASEAN scholarship award winners

Meredita Susanty, an international student from Indonesia studying MSc Management in Information Technology at The University of Nottingham.

Find out more about our international student scholarships.

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