Professional development programs are an essential component of teacher learning. It has been believed that the teaching quality of the teachers is portrayed from the teacher’s quality themselves. However, research on the EFL instructors in higher education institution is rarely conducted. The previous researched mostly stressed on the English language teachers in primary and secondary schools. Therefore, to see the effects of the professional development programs of the EFL instructors in higher education institutions is significant, since EFL instructors dealt with complex requirement, including the English language proficiency and the English language teaching skills. Thus, this research focuses on the effects of professional development programs and activities experienced by the EFL instructors either through professional communities learning programs or personal initiative activities. The participants of this research were ten EFL instructors in higher education institution in Indonesia. They were chosen by convenience sampling technique, in which they voluntarily participated in this research. The semi structured interview was conducted to get the data from the EFL instructors regarding professional development. The interview transcription was then analyzed by using thematic analysis. The results revealed that the professional development programs that they joined are mostly based on their personal initiative and the rest are from the institutional programs. They mentioned the effects of the programs in the following: 1. Research collaboration, 2. Research publication skills, 3. Improvement in ELT method and strategies, 4. Networking, 5. Collective reflection, 6. English language skills improvement.

Keywords: professional development, EFL instructors, higher education institution, professional development programs