The Center for Population and Policy Studies, established in April, 1973, is among one of the first study centers of Gadjah Mada University. Since its establishment the Center has changed its name three times. In response to the dynamic of development issues in population related studies, the Center firstly changed its name from Population Institute (Lembaga Kependudukan) into Population Research and Studies Center (Pusat Penelitian dan Studi Kependudukan). The expansion of the Center’s mission by focusing on research on contemporary population issues has brought the second change, turning the name into Population Studies Center (Pusat Penelitian Kependudukan). Furthermore, in 2001 the Center changed its name into the Center for Population and Policy Studies (Pusat Studi Kependudukan dan Kebijakan) due to the expansion of multidisciplinary issues that has been conducted through its research activities. This transformation of names represent changes or developments in the Center’ interests, which brings consequences upon its activities with regard to research, training, and publications.

Since its establishment, CPPS-GMU has consistently pursued multidisciplinary research in the field of population and development. Topics of research have shifted from the conventional concerns on population dynamics - which include topics such as fertility and mortality changes, mobility patterns, value of children - to more contemporary research areas of population and policy studies such as rural transformation and agricultural activities, international labor migration, gender and reproductive health, social security and social policy, governance and decentralization. The Center has also conducted international comparative studies on issues such as cross-border migration, female migration, children caught in conflict, and many others.

Recently, the status of Gadjah Mada University has changed, with the result of a broadening of GMU’s autonomy as a state-owned legal entity (Badan Hukum Milik Negara, BHMN). By now, it has grown rapidly, turning into one of the largest higher learning institutions in the country with 18 faculties covering almost all-academic disciplines and more than 40,000 students. The University has also been declared as a research university. As a response to GMU’s objective to become a research university, CPPS-GMU established a Masters Program on Policy Studies in mid 2004.