Established in 2010, the U.S.-Indonesia Joint Council on Higher Education Partnership (Joint Council) works to promote and expand institutional partnerships resulting in increased numbers of student exchanges, faculty exchanges and joint research. The Joint Council is the only non-governmental organization directly mentioned in the Joint Declaration of the U.S. - Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership and encouraged by both President Obama and President Yudhoyono to "harness the energies of the non-governmental, public, and private sectors in both countries in support of expanding bilateral programs" and is comprised of the Indonesian Ministry of Education, U.S. higher education associations, foundations, corporations, and over 200 U.S. and Indonesian colleges and universities.

USINDO is a founding member of the U.S.-Indonesia Joint Council on Higher Education, along with the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), the American Association of Community Colleges, the Institute of International Education (IIE), and East-West Center. The Council was announced on July 29th, 2010. The full text of the announcement is available here

The Council works to enhance U.S.-Indonesia educational cooperation through initiatives which complement official programs and address key long-term areas of the educational relationship. The Joint U.S.-Indonesia Council is bi-national, with U.S. and Indonesian co-chairs: Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (A.P.L.U.), and an Indonesian Co-Chair, plus Deputy Indonesian Co-Chairs from the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of National Planning. Each side of the Council involves individuals and organizations in their country in a joint effort to address a broad range of topics in bilateral educational cooperation and generate support.

After seven years of successful progress towards achieving the initial 5-year goal originally set by the Obama administration in 2010 of doubling the number of students in each other’s country, the U.S. - Indonesia Joint Council on Higher Education Partnership is proud to leave a legacy of facilitating nearly 1,000 two-way student exchanges and helping to establish nine new university-to-university partnerships.

Nearing the end of 2017, as the Council winds down on its activities, the U.S.-Indonesia Society (USINDO), as one of the Council's founding members, is proud to continue supporting the work that the Council has done and carry on its role of fostering higher education partnerships between the U.S. and Indonesia. These efforts include utilizing and facilitating the Council’s extensive network, which has continued to be beneficial to many Indonesian and American counterparts in the education sector. Through this network, USINDO has continued to facilitate a variety of partnerships and meetings between U.S. and Indonesian universities as well as other relevant stakeholders in the education sector.

As part of our efforts to continue engaging fellow colleagues with interest in the U.S. - Indonesia higher education partnership, we encourage you to reach out to USINDO should your organization / institution of higher organization have any current projects, activities, and initiatives related to student exchange, faculty & staff exchange, institutional partnerships, and joint research on U.S. & Indonesia.