Iowa State educator assists effort to export U.S. community college model to Indonesia

AMES, Iowa -- President Obama is scheduled to arrive in Indonesia on June 14 for a rescheduled visit to the country where he spent part of his childhood. And U.S. Department of State preparation for the visit has included work by an Iowa State University educational leadership and policy studies (ELPS) professor.

Linda Serra Hagedorn, a professor of ELPS who will become interim chair in July, was asked by State Department officials to visit the country in February to provide education leaders there information on the American community college system. Hagedorn worked through the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta to make 19 presentations at various colleges, universities and high schools. She blogged about the experience.

"Indonesia is a strategically placed Muslim country that maintains a positive view of the U.S., so it's really important that the relationship be maintained," Hagedorn said. "And that's why I think there's so much interest. We want to show that the U.S. can be friendly with a Muslim country and take steps to assist them in better development."

Part of the Obama effort

Hagedorn's visit was part of a formal Obama administration effort within the country.

"The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta is now working overtime to make the most of new opportunities to engage with Indonesia, the world's fourth-largest country and the world's largest Muslim-majority nation," wrote Cameron R. Hume, U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, in a Feb. 26 InsiderHigherEd.com "Views" piece. "Higher education is a cornerstone of the Obama administration's new, evolving comprehensive partnership with Indonesia. As Secretary of State Clinton said during a Jakarta visit last February, 'education is the key to expanding economic opportunity in Indonesia and allowing people to live up to their full potential.'"

In a March 23 USA Today article, Fajar Riza Ul Haq, who runs the Maarif Institute, an Islamic organization in Jakarta, cited education as "one of the keys to develop moderate Muslim groups to fight extremism." In that same story, Walter North, director of USAID's $200 million a year Indonesia program, said that Indonesians who have enjoyed access to higher education and quality jobs "are not generally the people who are attracted to extremism."

That's why Hagedorn's expertise as a community college researcher and president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education has been called upon to open the dialogue on exporting the U.S. community college model to Indonesia.

"They [State Department officials] want to start the process [of developing a community college system]," Hagedorn said. "They wanted to first begin a conversation to learn more about how the U.S. created our successful model. I also met with labor leaders in Indonesia to discuss the vocational side of community colleges. Although our system works well in the U.S., there are barriers in Indonesia that would require extensive revision."

Attempting to break educational barriers

Some of those barriers exist within Indonesia's current post-secondary education structure.

"They [Indonesia] don't have community colleges, but they do have what are termed 'polytechnics,'" Hagedorn said. "And these are post-secondary institutions that provide technical training. They're unlike community colleges in that they typically concentrate on one or two disciplines -- such as manufacturing, or technology. They also have what they call SMKs, which are vocational high schools for younger students who are not going to college -- providing them with training that will hopefully lead them into some gainful employment.

"But the big problem -- and this is what came up in many of my interactions -- is that education is sought, but there are few jobs," she continued. "So whereas in the U.S. we look at education as the key to a middle class, in Indonesia, that may not be the case. So the problems are very, very intense and it's just not about providing education."

Since returning from her trip, Hagedorn's been working to set up partnerships between Iowa State and U.S. community colleges with universities in Indonesia to explore opportunities for exchange. She's participating in one exchange starting this fall when she'll serve as the major professor for Augustina Veny Purnamasari, a Fulbright Scholar from Indonesia who will attend Iowa State as a higher education major. She met Hagedorn during her visit to the country.

Hagedorn says Purnamasari will assist her continuing efforts in Indonesia, which include seeking money from USAID and the U.S. Embassy to help fund more formal opportunities.

"This [establishing greater educational exchange with the U.S.] isn't going to happen overnight," Hagedorn said. "There are a lot of issues that need to be worked out -- many of them financial. I think it's less of a problem politically, and more financial."

Last fall, Iowa State officials also joined with the Sampoerna Foundation of Indonesia at the request of the U.S. State Department to help establish the Sampoerna School of Education in the country.