Three Dutch universities: Leiden, Groningen and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam have joined forces this year to organize a first ever Pre-doctoral programme in Indonesia for future and potential Indonesian PhD candidates at Dutch universities.

Wija Wijayanto and Arum Perwitasari both were Indonesian PhD students at Leiden University, funded by the Leiden-DIKTI Graduate Scholarship Programme. With the help of this scholarship, literally thousands of students travel abroad to write their dissertations. During their research period, Arum and Wija got to discover what it is like to live in Leiden. Here they are, sharing their personal experiences.