Subnational migration infrastructure and international student mobility: insights from Indonesia’s Beasiswa NTB programme

Drawing on the case of Beasiswa NTB—a subnational scholarship programme funded by the provincial government of West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia—this article examines how institutional actors, regulatory mechanisms, and logistical arrangements mediate trajectories of international student mobility (ISM). In a setting where opportunities for overseas study are uneven and limited, the provincial government emerges as a pivotal actor, not only in facilitating student departures but also in defining eligibility criteria and shaping the directionality of mobility pathways. The article shows that Beasiswa NTB operates through a complex interplay between formal governance structures and ad hoc bureaucratic practices, which often reproduces rather than alleviates inequality. It argues that this dynamic is driven by a regulatory framework designed to expedite student mobility without adequate institutional consolidation, resulting in bureaucratic circumvention, the proliferation of informal arrangements with limited oversight and accountability, standard-lowering practices, and heightened vulnerability to political intervention.