Study at Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) 2026

In the latest QS World University Rankings 2026, Universitas Airlangga entered the global top 300 for the first time in its history, landing at 287th place in the world, as the university itself announced (fst.unair.ac.id). That makes it one of four Indonesian universities in the global top 300, and a serious player in the health sciences across Southeast Asia. If you’re an international applicant who wants to study medicine, dentistry, or veterinary medicine in English at a fraction of Western prices, this is an address worth knowing.

UNAIR isn’t an obvious pick for most international applicants. Most of the students I work with hear about this university for the first time only once we start looking at English-taught medical programs outside Europe. That’s a shame, because it’s Indonesia’s second-oldest university, with roots reaching back to a medical school founded in 1913, and one of the few Indonesian universities with disciplines that place in the world’s top 100. Universitas Airlangga runs an extensive International Undergraduate Programme (IUP) across ten study programs, entirely in English, and international applicants go through a streamlined pathway of document review and a Zoom interview.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know: UNAIR’s position in the rankings (and why QS and THE show such different numbers), the IUP admissions process step by step, English-taught programs, real costs in Indonesian rupiah converted to US dollars, scholarships available to international applicants, and life in Surabaya. If you’re weighing Asia as a study destination, also check our guides to Universitas Indonesia, Gadjah Mada, and studying in Asia. UNAIR follows the same logic as those: a Western-style education at an Asian price, just with a pronounced tilt toward the health sciences. If you’re only starting to plan a move abroad, begin with our comprehensive guide to studying abroad.

What is Universitas Airlangga’s ranking position?

You need to read this carefully, because the numbers don’t line up with each other - and that’s not an error. UNAIR shows precisely the gap between reputation and research citation impact that affects most of Southeast Asia’s leading universities.

Let’s start with the strongest result. In the QS World University Rankings 2026, Universitas Airlangga placed 287th in the world and entered the global top 300 for the first time in its history, as reported by UNAIR’s Faculty of Science and Technology (fst.unair.ac.id). QS rewards reputation among employers and academics, plus internationalization, and UNAIR is strong on both fronts. For context: in QS’s overall ranking, it’s outranked within Indonesia by Universitas Indonesia (189th) and Gadjah Mada. So UNAIR isn’t Indonesia’s overall national No. 1, but it sits firmly in the leading pack.

It gets more interesting in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026. There, three of UNAIR’s disciplines rank first in all of Indonesia: veterinary medicine and dentistry both place in the 51-100 band worldwide, and pharmacy and pharmacology sit in the 251-300 band (unair.ac.id). It’s no coincidence that all three are health and life sciences. UNAIR grew out of a medical school, and it’s around medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine that it built its real strength. If your intended field is one of these disciplines, you’re looking at a university that ranks in the world’s top 100 in that specific subject, not just at an overall 287th place.

The single most striking result is the THE Impact Rankings 2025, where UNAIR placed 9th in the world (timeshighereducation.com). This ranking measures a university’s contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, so don’t read it as a measure of academic prestige. It’s a different metric that rewards partnerships, public health work, and institutional policy. But for employers in the ESG sector and development organizations, it’s a concrete signal.

Now for the other side of the coin. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026, where citation impact and research strength dominate the methodology, UNAIR sits in the 1201-1500 band worldwide (timeshighereducation.com). U.S. News Best Global Universities places it 979th in the world (and 2nd in Indonesia, behind UI), which captures the scale well: solid, but not among the world’s research leaders. The takeaway for you as an applicant: this is a university with a strong reputation and a genuinely excellent profile in the health sciences, but if you’re dreaming of a purely research-driven career in physics or theoretical chemistry, its citation impact in the hard sciences is lower than at the European universities in our guide to English-taught degrees in continental Europe.

What does the Universitas Airlangga admissions process look like, step by step?

Admission to UNAIR as an international applicant is simpler than you might fear, because you don’t sit an in-person Indonesian entrance exam. The entire International Undergraduate Programme procedure runs through the central admissions office, PPMB (Pusat Penerimaan Mahasiswa Baru), and is based on document review plus remote selection.

Start with the prerequisites. According to PPMB’s official schedule for the 2026/2027 academic year (ppmb.unair.ac.id), as an international applicant you need a secondary school completion certificate (or a certificate confirming you’ll graduate in 2026), to be no older than 25 as of 1 July 2026, a valid language certificate, and an uploaded transcript covering semesters one through five. That’s a meaningful difference from some European universities: UNAIR looks at your school grades themselves, not just a single final leaving-exam score.

The language requirement is low for an English-taught degree. PPMB accepts TOEFL iBT 60, TOEFL ITP 500, IELTS 5.5, or the university’s own ELPT test at 500. For comparison, Dutch and Scandinavian universities typically require IELTS 6.0-7.0. Even so, don’t read this threshold as an invitation to underprepare your English, because classes in medicine or law taught in English demand a confident grasp of the language from week one. You can prepare for the TOEFL with our TOEFL app, which offers full practice tests with AI feedback. If you’re torn between certificates, see our TOEFL vs IELTS guide.

The selection itself has three components: a personal statement, an English-language academic aptitude test taken online, and a qualifying interview over Zoom. The personal statement needs to answer three questions: why this specific program, what you bring to it, and why Universitas Airlangga specifically. That’s a familiar format if you’ve already written an application essay for US universities or a personal statement for European universities. If this is your first application outside your home country, our general guide on how to get accepted to study abroad will help.

UNAIR runs two admissions rounds per year. For the 2026/2027 intake, the first round opens registration from 4 March to 6 April 2026, with the test and interview on 11 April, and results on 15 April 2026. The second round runs registration from 16 April to 1 June 2026, with the test on 7 June and results on 12 June 2026. The application fee for international applicants is IDR 2 million (approx. $112 USD). Practical advice: aim for the first round, because medical programs have small seat limits and part of the pool fills up early.

Step by step:

1. Check the seat limit for your chosen program in the PPMB table. These are enrollment caps, not selectivity figures, so don’t try to calculate an acceptance rate from them.
2. Take a language certificate exam (TOEFL iBT 60, IELTS 5.5, or ELPT 500) well in advance, since you’ll need to upload it at registration.
3. Prepare your documents: secondary school certificate, transcript covering 5 semesters, passport, and a personal statement answering three questions.
4. Register at pendaftaran.unair.ac.id within your chosen round’s window and pay the IDR 2 million fee.
5. Take the academic aptitude test online and the interview over Zoom on the scheduled day.
6. Wait for your results (15 April or 12 June 2026). Once admitted, plan ahead for converting your secondary-school results for enrollment paperwork and your student visa.

What’s worth studying at Universitas Airlangga?

UNAIR has 15 faculties, but as an international applicant you’ll realistically be choosing among ten IUP programs taught in English. The rest of the university runs in Indonesian. That’s good news, because the IUP track concentrates exactly the fields where UNAIR is strongest: the health sciences, law, and business. Every IUP program has a built-in requirement for international exposure - an exchange semester or a joint degree with a partner university abroad.

Medicine is the flagship and most competitive IUP program, with a limit of 50 seats a year. UNAIR grew out of a medical school, and it’s around the Faculty of Medicine that it built its base: several teaching hospitals and a well-regarded Institute of Tropical Disease with BSL-3 (biosafety level 3) laboratories. For a medical student, that means genuine exposure to tropical disease and public health at a scale you won’t find in Europe. UNAIR also offers a double-degree track in medicine, combining study in Surabaya with a partner university abroad. If you’re weighing medicine abroad more broadly, compare this with our complete guide to studying medicine abroad and our pre-med pathway in the US.

Dentistry (Dental Medicine) and Veterinary Medicine are the two programs where UNAIR is first in Indonesia and in the 51-100 band worldwide according to QS by Subject 2026. That’s not marketing - it’s a hard ranking position. Veterinary medicine has a 40-seat limit, dentistry 45. Both programs run on the university’s own clinics, giving students clinical practice from the early years of study. For an applicant considering veterinary medicine or dentistry who doesn’t want to pay Western rates, this is one of the strongest offerings anywhere in Asia.

Law (Laws) is the largest IUP program, with 80 seats a year. The program emphasizes international and comparative law, which makes sense for an international student, since you’re not learning the Indonesian legal code exclusively. For anyone thinking about a career in international law or with ASEAN-region organizations, familiarity with the legal system of Southeast Asia’s largest economy is a concrete asset.

Pharmacy rounds out the health-focused programs. UNAIR is first in Indonesia here too, and sits in the 251-300 band worldwide according to QS by Subject 2026. The IUP seat limit is small (10), so admission tends to be competitive. The program combines pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacology, and clinical pharmacy.

Economics and business covers four separate IUP programs at the Faculty of Economics and Business: Management, Accountancy, Islamic Economics, and Economics. These are the programs with the most double-degree agreements, including with Deakin University and the University of Western Australia, Saxion University in the Netherlands, and Asia University in Taiwan. Islamic Economics is a niche you won’t find in Europe, and one that carries real weight in Sharia-compliant finance - one of the fastest-growing segments in Asia.

Psychology is the tenth IUP program, with a 30-seat limit. It combines clinical, organizational, and social psychology, with an emphasis on the Asian and cross-cultural context.

How much do tuition and living costs run at Universitas Airlangga?

This is the field where UNAIR genuinely beats Western universities, but first you need to understand the Indonesian fee structure so the numbers don’t confuse you. Tuition splits into two components: UKT (Uang Kuliah Tunggal), paid every semester, and IPI (Iuran Pengembangan Institusi), paid once, at enrollment, as a new student. Your first year is therefore more expensive than the following ones, since it includes the one-time IPI.

Let’s look at specific programs for international students, based on PPMB’s official fee schedule for 2026/2027 (ppmb.unair.ac.id). Conversions to US dollars use a June 2026 rate (1 million IDR is roughly $56 USD, or about €52 EUR).

Management and accountancy are among the cheapest tracks: UKT of IDR 25 million per semester (approx. $1,400 USD), or IDR 50 million a year (approx. $2,800 USD), plus a one-time IPI of IDR 50 million (approx. $2,800 USD). Your first year comes to about IDR 100 million (approx. $5,600 USD), and each following year to about IDR 50 million (approx. $2,800 USD). The cheapest of all is economics: UKT of IDR 20 million per semester (approx. $1,120 USD) and a lower IPI, putting the first year at around IDR 80 million (approx. $4,480 USD).

Law costs an international student IDR 25 million per semester (approx. $1,400 USD), or IDR 50 million a year, plus a one-time IPI of IDR 100 million (approx. $5,600 USD). The first year comes to about IDR 150 million (approx. $8,400 USD), with subsequent years at IDR 50 million each.

Medicine is the most expensive, unsurprisingly. UKT runs IDR 37.5 million per semester (approx. $2,100 USD), or IDR 75 million a year (approx. $4,200 USD), plus a very high one-time IPI of IDR 280 million (approx. $15,700 USD). The first year of medicine therefore comes to around IDR 355 million (approx. $19,900 USD), but every following year drops to about IDR 75 million (approx. $4,200 USD). Despite the steep enrollment fee, a full six-year medical degree still works out many times cheaper than in the UK or the US. Veterinary medicine has a UKT of IDR 15 million per semester (approx. $840 USD) plus an IPI of IDR 100 million (approx. $5,600 USD), while dentistry has a UKT of IDR 34 million per semester (approx. $1,900 USD) plus an IPI of IDR 270 million (approx. $15,100 USD).

Now for living costs, and this is where Surabaya genuinely delivers. It’s a large city, but significantly cheaper than Jakarta or Singapore. A realistic monthly student budget looks like this:

• Housing: a room in a kos (Indonesian private boarding house) or a rented room runs IDR 1.5-3.5 million a month (approx. $85-195 USD).
• Food: a meal at a warung (a local eatery) costs IDR 15,000-30,000, so a monthly food budget fits within IDR 1.5-2.5 million (approx. $85-140 USD).
• Transport: the Gojek and Grab apps (on-demand scooter rides) plus local buses run IDR 500,000-1 million a month (approx. $30-55 USD).
• Phone, internet, and entertainment: another IDR 500,000-1 million (approx. $30-55 USD).

Total monthly cost of living: roughly IDR 4-7 million (approx. $225-390 USD), or around IDR 50-80 million a year (approx. $2,800-4,480 USD). That’s a level of living costs well below what you’d pay in most Western European or North American university towns across the majority of these categories. Combine low tuition (outside medicine) with very cheap living costs, and the total annual cost of a business program at UNAIR can fit within roughly $5,600-7,300 USD - less than tuition alone at many of the universities in our breakdown of the cost of studying in the US.

What scholarships and financial support are available for international applicants?

Tuition at UNAIR (outside medicine and dentistry) is low enough that many students fund their studies without a scholarship at all. But it’s worth knowing the available options, since combining low tuition with a scholarship can bring the real cost close to zero.

The two most important programs come from the Indonesian government. KNB (Kemitraan Negara Berkembang) is a scholarship for students from developing and partner countries, covering tuition and living costs. Not every country is automatically included in the default list of eligible nations, so check the current list before applying - many applicants from outside Southeast Asia successfully use it.

Darmasiswa is a separate, one-year government scholarship for Indonesian-language and culture courses - a good way to get to know the country before committing to a full degree.

UNAIR itself also runs programs that genuinely lower the cost. AMERTA (Academic Mobility Exchange for Undergraduate and Master at Airlangga) is an English-taught semester exchange, and LINGUA is an Indonesian language and culture course that, according to the university, comes with free tuition (unair.ac.id). These are good entry points if you want to test out life in Surabaya before committing to a full IUP program.

For doctoral students and researchers, it’s also worth checking whether your home country runs its own outbound research-mobility or Fulbright-style exchange program - many do, through national research councils or bilateral commissions with the US or the EU. You can read more about scholarship options in our guides to the Fulbright Program and to scholarships for studying abroad. If you’re weighing Asia more broadly, also see our guides to studying in South Korea and studying in Japan, where scholarship systems tend to be even more generous.

What is student life like in Surabaya?

Surabaya is Indonesia’s second-largest city, a port on the Madura Strait at the eastern end of Java, with a population of around three million. Locals call it Kota Pahlawan, the City of Heroes, after a 1945 battle during the fight for independence. For a student, it’s hot and humid year-round, tropical, with a rainy season and a dry season instead of four European-style seasons. Temperatures rarely drop below 25°C (77°F).

UNAIR’s campuses are spread across the city. Campus A and B in the center house mostly medical, legal, and social-science programs, while the sprawling, modern Campus C in the Mulyorejo district to the north concentrates the natural sciences, veterinary medicine, and newer faculties. Most IUP applicants end up on a specific campus depending on their program. Day-to-day transport between campuses and around the city runs mainly on on-demand scooter rides through the Gojek and Grab apps - Indonesia’s answer to Uber, cheap and everywhere.

Student life in Surabaya is cheaper and more local than in Jakarta. Students eat at warung - local eateries where a full meal costs a couple of dollars - and spend their evenings in cafés and shopping malls, which in Indonesia’s climate double as air-conditioned meeting spots. UNAIR’s international community is smaller than at Universitas Indonesia, but precisely because of that, it’s tighter-knit. IUP students form their own groups and clubs, and the university organizes cultural events for international students through the AMERTA and LINGUA programs.

Two things are worth knowing going in. First, Indonesia has a majority-Muslim culture, so everyday life - the calendar, halal food, Ramadan - differs from what you may be used to in Europe or North America. Second, language. Even though you’ll study in English, basic Bahasa Indonesia opens the door to real life in a city where, outside campus, few people speak English. It’s one of the more approachable languages in the world for a beginner, and the LINGUA course teaches it for free. If you’re comparing Asian study destinations, see also our guides to studying in Asia and to Gadjah Mada, Java’s other major university alongside UI. Elsewhere in the region, also worth considering are Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur and Chulalongkorn in Bangkok if you’re looking for English-taught study elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Summary: who is Universitas Airlangga right for?

Universitas Airlangga has a very distinct profile, and that distinctiveness is exactly what determines whether it’s right for you. It’s a health-sciences university that, alongside that focus, runs strong law and business programs in English. Two of its disciplines, veterinary medicine and dentistry, sit in the world’s top 100 (the 51-100 band per QS by Subject 2026), and pharmacy sits further back, in the 251-300 band, but is still first in Indonesia. Flagship medicine is built on the university’s own hospitals and its Institute of Tropical Disease. If your field is medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, or pharmacy, you get an English-taught degree at the world’s leading edge of the discipline, for a fraction of what you’d pay in the West.

UNAIR isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for a globally recognized brand name that opens doors in London’s financial district on its own, NUS in Singapore or a European university is a better fit. If you dream of a purely research-driven career in the natural sciences, UNAIR’s research citation impact is lower than at the universities in our guide to English-taught degrees in Europe. But if you want to study a medical profession or international law in English, at a real-world price, with access to the dynamic Southeast Asian market and double-degree agreements with Australia or the Netherlands, UNAIR is one of the most interesting options outside Europe. For anyone also weighing Universitas Indonesia, the difference is simple: UI is the stronger overall brand and the stronger choice for law; UNAIR is the health-sciences pick.

Based on the clients I work with, international applicants tend to look at Indonesia in two scenarios: when the threshold for medicine back home turned out to be too high, and UNAIR offers an English-taught medical degree with a genuine clinical base, or when they want an Asia experience as a springboard into a career across the ASEAN region. In both cases, the key move is the same: start with your language certificate and the first admissions round, because seats on the medical programs fill up fast.

Next steps

1. Check your program and its seat limit in the PPMB table and pick your admissions round (the first round opens 4 March 2026).
2. Take the TOEFL (iBT 60) or IELTS (5.5): prepare with our TOEFL app, which offers full practice tests with AI feedback.
3. Write a personal statement answering three questions: why this program, what you bring, and why UNAIR.
4. Register at pendaftaran.unair.ac.id and pay IDR 2 million within your round’s window.
5. Prepare for the test and interview over Zoom, both entirely in English.
6. Plan your budget: separate the one-time IPI from the per-semester UKT so the first-year cost doesn’t catch you off guard.

Want to estimate your real chances and costs for a specific program? Use our tools at app.college-council.com, where you can check requirements and compare universities. Also see our other guides to Asian universities: Universitas Indonesia, Gadjah Mada, ITB Bandung, and NUS in Singapore. Good luck!

Sources and methodology

1. PPMB Universitas Airlangga - International Undergraduate Programme 2026/2027: requirements, seat limits, fees, timeline
2. Universitas Airlangga - QS WUR by Subject 2026: three UNAIR disciplines in the world’s top ranks
3. Faculty of Science and Technology, UNAIR - UNAIR ranked 287th in QS World University Rankings 2026
4. Times Higher Education - Universitas Airlangga: THE Impact 2025 (=9) and THE World 2026 (1201-1500)
5. Universitas Airlangga - International Programs: AMERTA, LINGUA, brochure
6. QS Quacquarelli Symonds - Universitas Airlangga: profile and rankings
7. College Council - Atlas, canonical HEI record (ROR 04ctejd88, OpenAlex I205133468; U.S. News Best Global Universities 2025: 979th worldwide, 2nd in Indonesia)
8. College Council - internal data (observations from advising international candidates applying to study abroad, 2023-2026)