The Chronicle of Higher Education (July 11, 2010) — “Obama Begins Rebuilding Academic Ties to Indonesia”
EXCERPT:
The Indonesian government has recently begun to offer small stipends for overseas study to midcareer faculty members … as well as short-term “sandwich” grants to doctoral students to do research abroad.
The American government is likewise ramping up its exchange programs focusing on Indonesia. For one, it is greatly increasing the number of Indonesian students served through a scholarship program that provides foreign students practical training at American community colleges, from about 10 students a year to 50.
The State Department is also expanding the Fulbright Program in Indonesia, including financing a new program focused specifically on encouraging scholarship in critical areas in science and technology. The Indonesian Fulbright program will become one of the largest in the world, Ms. Romanowski says.
Officials from both countries say enhancing student and faculty exchanges will be a critical piece of the bilateral higher-education strategy. Such partnerships “build bridges,” Ms. Romanowski says, imagining the linkages that could grow out of a graduate-student exchange. “Who knows what will happen 25 years from now when they are publishing articles together or doing research together?”