Fact Sheet: Higher Education Partnership With Indonesia

Close cooperation in education is a fundamental element of our Comprehensive Partnership with Indonesia. In June 2010, President Obama announced the U.S. commitment to invest $165 million in higher education collaboration over five years. Our partnership in education reflects a true whole of government approach, involving many different agencies, as well as indispensable private sector cooperation. We will help build Indonesian capacity to provide world-class university education and will significantly increase within five years the number of American and Indonesian students who study in each other's country.

A key element of our strategic approach will continue to be joint efforts to facilitate self-sustaining partnerships among U.S. and Indonesian institutions, foundations, corporations, universities and individuals. Already, several initiatives have been launched that reflect this spirit of our educational engagement:

 Four of 25 planned university partnerships have already been awarded by USAID: the first with UCLA to strengthen research on marine biodiversity at the Universitas Udayana in Bali, the second with Columbia University and Universitas Indonesia to establish a center on child protection, the third with Texas A&M and three Indonesian universities in a tropical plant curriculum project, and the fourth with Harvard University's School of Public Health and several Indonesian institutions to enhance training in public health and applied research.

 The first 10 American and Indonesian Fulbright students and scholars are studying in each other's countries this fall under the new Fulbright Indonesia Research, Science and Technology (FIRST) Program, a $15 million commitment over five years to support academic exchange in critical fields that address common challenges, including climate change, food security and public health.

 The first expanded cohort of 50 young Indonesians are beginning their studies this fall at U.S. community colleges under the new $12.5 million five-year Community College Initiative in fields important to national development such as agriculture, business, engineering, information technology, and health.

 A doubling, to more than 400, of the number of English Access Microscholarships to be awarded this year for after-school English classes for disadvantaged 14-18 year-olds, so that more young people may aspire to educational exchange with the United States.

 The first cohort of 17 Americans studied Indonesian in intensive summer institutes in Malang this summer, strengthening their language skills while deepening their understanding and respect for Indonesian society and culture.

As part of the Comprehensive Partnership, our two countries established an Education Working Group that consults with interested parties in both countries to promote educational exchanges and collaboration.

Looking forward, in early 2011 the U.S. Department of Commerce will bring the largest-ever U.S. government-led delegation of U.S. universities to Indonesia in April 2011. The visit will allow Indonesian students to hear from 60 universities about why they should consider study in the United States and will allow these 60 institutions to establish greater collaboration with Indonesian institutions in scientific research, faculty and student exchanges, and other projects that will be mutually beneficial.

Also in 2011, the U.S. Secretary of Education has invited his Indonesian counterpart to travel to the United States for a U.S. - Indonesia Higher Education Summit to advance our cooperation in education and engage the private sector.

The success of the education initiatives depends upon close collaboration and leadership within the private sector. We welcome private sector initiatives such as the formation of the U.S. - Indonesia Joint Council for Higher Education and the engagement of the U.S. - Indonesia Society (USINDO), the East-West Center, the Institute of International Education, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, the American Association of Community Colleges, and many others.