From Indonesian language class in Budapest to gamelan performances and university life from Sumatera to Papua, education is giving Indonesians and Hungarians a chance to meet, learn from one another and build connections that last far beyond graduation.
For decades, educational exchanges have provided one of the most direct ways for Indonesia and Hungary to get to know each other. Indonesian students come to Hungary through programmes such as the Stipendium Hungaricum, while Hungarian students have travelled in the opposite direction through Indonesia’s Darmasiswa Scholarship to study the Indonesian language, arts and culture. The result is more than a scholarship exchange. Students return home carrying new language skills, friendships, professional networks and personal stories about another society.
Darmasiswa: Indonesia beyond Bali
For Hungarian students interested in Indonesia, few programmes offer as immersive an experience as Darmasiswa. The Indonesian government describes it as a non-degree scholarship programme for international students to study Indonesian language, arts and culture at selected institutions across the country for almost a year. The programme was introduced to Hungary in 1991, while the first Hungarian alumni are recorded from 1993.
For Hungarian participants, the attraction is not limited to learning Bahasa Indonesia in a classroom. Depending on their field of study, students can explore traditional dance, gamelan, batik, visual arts, crafts, photography and other forms of Indonesian cultural heritage.
And importantly, they do not have to experience Indonesia only from the perspective of Java or Bali. The alumni records show Hungarian participants studying at institutions in Yogyakarta, Bandung and Surakarta, but also in Denpasar and Singaraja in Bali, Padangpanjang in West Sumatra, Malang in East Java, Mataram in Lombok, Medan in North Sumatra and other parts of the country.
This gives students an opportunity to see Indonesia as an archipelago rather than a single destination. Indonesia is not simply Bali, beaches and tropical tourism. A student living in Padangpanjang encounters Minangkabau culture; someone studying in Mataram experiences the warmth of Lombok and West Nusa Tenggara; another student in Medan encounters the cultural landscape of North Sumatra. The experience can turn a distant country into a collection of familiar places, people and stories.
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From scholarship recipients to diplomats and academics
The long-term impact of Darmasiswa can also be seen in what some alumni went on to do after returning to Hungary.
The list of Darmasiswa alumni in Hungary records Norbert Kiss, a Darmasiswa alumnus who later became a diplomat at Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sándor Sipos, another alumnus, is listed as having served as Hungary’s ambassador to Thailand. The same records also include Eszter Tari, associated with the University of Pécs and later as a guest lecturer in Indonesia. These examples show how the impact of an educational exchange can continue long after a student leaves Indonesia. What begins as a scholarship can become part of a diplomatic career, an academic path or a lifelong professional connection.
Another particularly visible example is András Térfy. As a former Darmasiswa participant who studied Balinese karawitan at ISI Denpasar, Térfy later became a member of the Surya Kencana A gamelan group, a band consisting of Darmasiswa alumni who still play gamelan. Hungarian and Indonesian media have highlighted his role in cultural performances, while he has also been involved in translating Hungarian children’s literature into Indonesian.
His story captures something that statistics cannot: the relationship created by Darmasiswa can become part of everyday life in Hungary.
Indonesian language is also finding a place in Budapest
The connection does not stop when Hungarian students leave Indonesia.
In Budapest, Indonesian language learning has also been supported through the Embassy of Indonesia in Budapest. They regularly offers free Indonesian language courses (BIPA – Bahasa Indonesia bagi Penutur Asing) for adult learners. The program also guided by BIPA modules to help Hungarians master Bahasa Indonesia effectively. For Hungarian learners, opportunities like these offer a first step before deciding to spend a longer period in Indonesia. A language class in Budapest may begin with vocabulary and grammar, but it can also lead to curiosity about Indonesian food, music, history, universities and everyday life.
Stipendium Hungaricum: the bridge in the other direction
The educational bridge also works from Indonesia towards Hungary.
For Indonesian students, Hungary has become an increasingly familiar destination for higher education, particularly through the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship programme. The programme has enabled Indonesian students to pursue degrees at universities in Budapest, Debrecen, Szeged, Pécs and other Hungarian cities. For these students, the experience is about more than obtaining a degree. Living in Hungary means navigating a different language, climate, cuisine and social environment while building friendships with Hungarian classmates and other international students.
The same process happens in reverse. Hungarian students living in Indonesia become part of local communities, meet Indonesian students and experience traditions directly rather than encountering them only through news articles or social media.
That is where the people-to-people dimension becomes especially important. Formal diplomatic relations are maintained by governments, but long-term understanding is often built by ordinary people: students sharing a meal, musicians playing together, researchers working on the same project or former scholarship recipients staying in touch years after their programmes have ended.
Two scholarships, one growing connection
Darmasiswa and Stipendium Hungaricum serve different purposes, but together they illustrate how education can work as a two-way bridge. Indonesian students gain access to Hungarian higher education, while Hungarian students can experience Indonesia through language, arts and culture. And the exchange does not necessarily end with graduation. Alumni can become teachers, diplomats, academics, musicians, researchers, businesspeople or simply enthusiastic advocates of the country they once studied in. That is perhaps the most lasting value of educational exchange: a scholarship may fund a student’s journey, but the relationships built along the way can continue for decades.
And there is another Indonesian scholarship opportunity worth knowing about. The BSBI (Beasiswa Seni dan Budaya Indonesia/Indonesian Arts and Culture Scholarship) is a cultural programme introducing young people from other countries to Indonesian language, arts, traditions and communities.
For young Hungarians looking beyond the usual study-abroad destinations, these programmes offer something that a degree or a short holiday cannot easily provide: the chance to live another culture, form personal relationships and return home with Indonesia no longer feeling quite so far away.
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