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The Presidential Scholars initiative, which has the endorsement of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, seeks to foster the development of world-class department faculties at Indonesian universities by generating 400 internationally trained Indonesian PhDs. This initiative differs from previous assistance programs to higher education by focusing on a Center of Excellence model in which both the selected universities and the selected scholars jointly commit to enhancing the quality of their academic department. The scholar portion of the initiative will be funded by a consortium of donors, including the United States (through the Fulbright program, entailing a commitment of $20 million over four years to support as many as 75-80 PhD candidates). The World Bank, along with the Indonesian Ministry of Education, will administer the selection and evaluation processes for the Centers of Excellence and will coordinate the scholarship programs of the donors.
At the present time, Fulbright-AMINEF has selected the first cohort of 35 Fulbright Presidential Scholars, who will begin their studies in the fall of 2007. These individuals will be open for recruitment by selected Centers of Excellence. Meanwhile, a major contribution of 120 scholarships has been secured from a second country that will form a secure basis for going forward. An RFP is still in the process of being drafted that will reflect the discussions on eligibility and selection criteria that have taken place among the stakeholders in this initiative. Also, it is expected that further contributions of scholarships will be sought in the coming months. The Indonesian government will make a $10 million dollar commitment to support Centers of Excellence development by reprogramming funds from a current World Bank higher education loan, and have indicated support for additional major funding.
This initiative, centered on the US/Indonesia Teacher Education Consortium (USINTEC) and headed by Ohio State University, is focused on promoting higher education partnerships and strengthening institutional capacity in teacher education through collaborative development of innovative educational programs and research. To date, USINTEC includes Ohio State University, Indiana University and the University of Illinois, along with 12 Indonesian universities. Other universities, both American and Indonesian and including private institutions, will be included in the future.
Major USINTEC goals are to:
- Focus on needs for teacher certification and upgrading by university-level faculties of education.
- Develop and strengthen pre-service, in-service, and graduate teacher education programs and collaborative research relevant to national needs and local priorities
- Extend information communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure in Indonesia, enhance information literacy among consortium users, and utilize ICT to support new and existing academic programs and collaborative research
- Increase institutional capacity for leadership, decision making, strategic planning, and management in teacher education
USINDO joined USINTEC in a successful application to Higher Education for Development (HED) for a grant to begin preliminary work in strengthening institutional capacity in elementary teacher education. This grant will support assessments of current programs; ICT capacities; development and revision of undergraduate programs to enable certification; and pilot implementation of the resulting programs. Primary work under this grant is expected to be undertaken during July and August of 2007. Additional funding for further development and implementation of the Consortium's work is currently being sought.
This initiative seeks to address a number of technology issues facing Indonesian higher education institutions, including internet access, intranets, video-conferencing capabilities, and internet-based systems to streamline academic research and university management capabilities. Effort will be concentrated on developing a nationwide, affordable, and sustainable Internet system for use by all tertiary level institutions via a public-private partnership arrangement. The initiative will also attempt to address the lack of Indonesian language software that could be used in classroom and distance learning settings, course management and university administration.
USINDO is currently developing a comprehensive proposal to focus on the effective deployment of educational technology within an Indonesian university setting. The goal is to assist universities in instituting best-practices to support the development of a fully-utilized, fully integrated ICT structure that will foster increased and higher quality ICT use for research, communication, and other academic and management uses. USINDO will initially focus on a pilot project with one university or a small consortium.
The initiative in University Management seeks to address selected management concerns in Indonesian universities, which result from the decentralization process now being implemented by the Ministry of National Education. Exemplar management concerns include financial management, fundraising, strategic planning, course management, credit systems, and accountability.
USINDO has begun discussions with the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) on developing a project that would address these management issues. UMSL is currently conducting preliminary work in developing a scope of work, identifying potential partners, and seeking necessary internal approvals. It is expected that UMSL representatives will go to Indonesia in the summer of 2007 to identify Indonesian partner universities.
Contact: Tom Spooner
Updated information may be found at: www.usindo-highered.org
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