Acicis has secured $1.59 million of 2025 round New Colombo Plan Mobility Program (NCPMP) funding from the Australian Government. This funding will support 228 students from the consortium’s 17 Australian member universities to study in Indonesia in 2025 and 2026.
Students will undertake in-country study through Acicis’ established suite of short format and semester-long study programs across a wide range of disciplines including law, development studies, journalism, public health, international relations, and creative arts.
Speaking from the organisation’s national secretariat at The University of Western Australia in Perth, Acicis Director, Liam Prince, welcomed the funding announcement. “New funding to support Australian students to study in Indonesia is always a positive development,” Mr Prince said. “We’re grateful for the confirmation and endorsement by the Department (DFAT) of Acicis’ status as a key partner in the delivery of the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan in Indonesia,” Mr Prince added.
The Australian Government made significant changes to the New Colombo Plan under the 2025 funding round–including, most notably, an increase in the minimum duration of offshore Indo-Pacific experiences permitted under the NCP’s Mobility Program to four weeks (previously two weeks).
“Changes to the NCP’s settings under the 2025 round have required us to reimagine some of our short format programs”, explained Mr Prince, “particularly our (previously) three-week language short course and our (previously) two-week public health study tour.” “However”, Mr Prince added, “by and large we’ve welcomed the challenge of meeting the new minimum project duration requirements and look forward to supporting students to undertake these longer periods of study in Indonesia. “I believe Acicis is uniquely poised to meet these new requirements thanks to the consortium’s established in-country infrastructure and year-round staffing profile based in Indonesia,” Mr Prince explained.
The Koala congratulates Acicis and looks forward to following the journey of the students who will benefit from this funding.
