23 Afghan students get scholarships to study at Unwahas

Semarang, NU Online
A total of 23 students from Afghanistan receiving full scholarships from the Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has begun to live and study in one of the NU colleges, the Wahid Hasyim University (Unwahas) Semarang.<>

The students arriving in Semarang Sunday (27/10) were officially transferred from the country's largest Muslim organization to Unwahas.

The Unwahas rector Dr Noor Ahmad said the tuition-free scholarships program was part of cooperation between NU and the government of Afghanistan.

He greatly appreciated NU for being capable of playing important roles in helping create peace in many conflict situations in the Middle East, , especially Afghanistan.

"This scholarships (program) is a form of realization of the cooperation. These Afghan students will be facilitated by Unwahas to study in the Bachelor's (S1) level,'' he said after receiving the students at Unwahas Menoreh.

The 23 students have been selected by the university and placed in courses of their choice such as Law, International Relations, Pharmacy, Political Science, Economics, and so on. The students will stay at the Unwahas dormitory and Islamic boarding school (pesantren).

Present also at the occasion were Deputy General Chairman of NU Dr. KH As'ad Said Ali, Head of Scholarship Program of NU KH Mashuri Malik and Chairman of the Unwahas Foundation H Suwanto.

Mashuri Malik said that the scholarships awarded to the Afghan students were from the NU followers' fund.

"We believe these scholarships are very beneficial for the Afghan students. We also believe that they can adapt and study in Unwahas, because here there is also an Islamic boarding school," he said adding that after graduating from the university, the students could implement their knowlegde in their beloved country.

Formerly Unwahas, in previous academic years 2013/2014, also received some 48 students from Thailand to study at one of the NU leading universities.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq