In the era of the 4.0 industrial revolution, the academic world will become more global, because it demands universities to strengthen innovation, networking and cooperation, both at home and abroad. The number of foreign students studying in tertiary institutions is also one of the aspects that must be carefully considered by universities in conducting internationalization programs to face an increasingly borderless competition.

In Indonesia, there are many campuses that are used by students as places to gain knowledge, one of which is Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY). In addition to having students from Indonesia, UMY continues to strive to “invite” foreign students, especially those from friendly countries, to be able to study at the Global Youth Campus.

It is undeniable that the presence of foreign students on campus will create diversity, facilitate cross-cultural understanding, create tolerance, increase research capacity, and help further development in the campus internationalization process. Given the number of foreign students, it is also used as an indicator of internationalization, which can determine the ranking of world universities as conducted by the Times Higher University Ranking, QS University Ranking, and Webometrics.

As in previous years, through the “UMY Scholarship 2020”, UMY held another admission selection session for foreign students from various parts of the world. This year, the applicants for UMY foreign students have increased rapidly, both at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels. The increase in the number of applicants is also accompanied by an increase in the number of countries in which said prospective students are from.

“Although we only opened our registration for about 1 month, Alhamdulillah, the foreign students were very enthusiastic this year to study at UMY. Our online registration listed at least 193 registrants”, said the Head of the UMY International Affairs Office, Yordan Gunawan, Friday ( 7/8).

According to Jordan, the 193 applicants came from 36 countries in the world, including Vietnam, Spain, Cambodia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Gambia, Madagascar, Palestine, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Zambia, Yemen, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Niger, Syria , India, Republic of Sudan, Burundi, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Guinea, Congo, Liberia, Egypt, Iran, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Tunisia and Cameroon.

The lecturer in International Law at FH UMY also explained that the 193 applicants, had to undergo a document-based selection process and only 163 prospective students passed the advanced selection, namely interviews at the Faculty and Study Program levels, according to the applicants’ choice. This interview resulted in 46 selected students, based on the decision of the UMY leadership, as seen at the following link:

https://www.umy.ac.id/announcement-of-umy-scholarship-for-international-students-on-

academic-year-2020-2021.html

“The favorite study programs chosen by students this year are Information Engineering, Accounting and Management for the Undergraduate Program and like the previous year, the Master of Management Study Program became the highest choice study program this year at the S2 level, as well as the Islamic Education Psychology Doctoral Program for the S3 level,” Yordan concluded.