The information was contained in an open letter addressed to the President Director of the Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDP). Signed by representatives of Palm Oil Scholarship alumni, the letter calls for clarity over the status of the affected candidates. According to the letter, the candidates had previously been officially declared successful and were subsequently included in an official coordination group for scholarship recipients. The situation reportedly changed after their selection status was cancelled. The alumni representatives attributed the cancellation to technical issues involving PDDIKTI and LLDIKTI data synchronization. For the affected candidates, the issue reportedly extends beyond an administrative problem. Many had already taken academic steps based on their earlier selection results, including submitting withdrawal letters to their original universities to meet the requirements for re-enrollment at universities participating in the BPDP scholarship program. The alumni representatives said this situation has left candidates facing uncertainty over their education. Some could potentially lose their student status at their previous universities while also losing access to the scholarship they had initially been awarded.   Alumni Question Verification Process The open letter also raises questions about the verification process conducted before the scholarship results were announced. The representatives questioned why PDDIKTI and LLDIKTI data validation problems remained unresolved after candidates had already been declared successful. One of their key questions concerns why the verification and validation process was not completed before the selection results were finalized and announced. They also questioned whether prospective students should bear the consequences of administrative or system-related problems if the issue originated from the selection system itself. The Palm Oil Human Resources Development Scholarship Program is supported by BPDP in cooperation with Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture and partner educational institutions. For 2026, BPDP stated that the scholarship quota had been increased to 5,000 students from 4,000 recipients the previous year. The program involves 42 partner universities. The official scholarship program states that eligible beneficiaries include smallholders, smallholder families, plantation workers and their families. Scholarship support covers tuition, living expenses, books and other academic needs.   Four Requests Submitted to BPDP Through the open letter, the alumni representatives submitted four requests to BPDP. First, they called for transparency regarding the candidates affected by the cancellation, including a detailed explanation of the technical problems involved. Second, they requested an objection period and a re-verification process, including an opportunity for affected candidates to correct administrative data. Third, if the data issue could not be resolved during the current selection cycle, they asked BPDP to guarantee that affected candidates could participate in the next selection period without having to repeat the entire selection process. Fourth, they called for a comprehensive evaluation of the governance and data-integration system used in the Palm Oil Human Resources Development Scholarship selection process. The representatives emphasized that many of the prospective scholarship recipients come from families connected to Indonesia’s palm oil plantation sector, including smallholder farmers and plantation workers. Therefore, the figure of around 200 affected candidates remains information contained in the open letter and has not been independently confirmed by BPDP. The letter was also copied to the Director General of Plantations at the Ministry of Agriculture, the head of LLDIKTI and the chair of Commission IV of Indonesia’s House of Representatives. (T1)