The Religious Affairs Ministry and the United States have agreed to expand access to the US’s Fulbright scholarship program for Indonesian institutions and individuals under the ministry, in an attempt to increase cultural exchanges and improve education quality in the country.

Religious Affairs Minister Nasaruddin Umar (right) and the US Ambassador to Indonesia Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir sign the memorandum of understanding (MoU) to expand access to the Fulbright scholarship program on Jan. 8, 2025. (US Embassy Jakarta/Rifky Suryadinata)

The Religious Affairs Ministry and the United States have agreed to expand access to the US’ Fulbright scholarship program for institutions and individuals under the auspices of the ministry, in an attempt to increase cultural exchanges and improve education quality in the country.

Religious Affairs Minister Nasaruddin Umar and US Ambassador to Indonesia Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Wednesday, promising to give opportunities for students at secondary and tertiary education institutions under the ministry, such as madrasahs and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools).

Religious Affairs Minister Nasaruddin Umar said the opportunity also extended to lecturers and researchers, especially religiously affiliated scholars with a particular research topic they want to pursue.

“The kyai [clerics] from pesantren can even get the opportunity to conduct comparative studies to see their [Muslim] peers in the US,” said Nasaruddin at the Religious Affairs Ministry’s office in Banteng Park, Central Jakarta.

In turn, the ministry also aims through the agreement to have US teachers come with the scholarship to teach at madrasahs and pesantren in Indonesia to improve the students’ English skills.

“We need many native [English] speakers in our pesantren,” the minister added, highlighting the importance of English in the country’s educational system.

Ambassador Lakhdhir gave an assurance that the opportunity was open to all religious educational institutions, not just Islamic ones.

“[Either] a pesantren or a Buddhist high school will be able to invite an American student under the Fulbright scholarship to be an English teaching assistant at their respective schools for a year,” she said on the same day.

Lakhdhir believed the agreement would “further the pursuit and building of knowledge”, drawing on the experience of Minister Nasaruddin himself, who was a Fulbright visiting scholar at Georgetown University, Washington, DC in 2002.

“As our minister well knows, by meeting one another, exchanging ideas, teaching one another new perspectives, we can better understand each other,” Lakhdhir added.

Hailed as the US’ most prestigious scholarship program, Fulbright has been operating in the country since 1952 with nearly 3,000 Indonesians dispatched to the US, as well as over 1,000 Americans to study, teach or conduct research in Indonesia. Since 1992, the program has been managed by the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation (AMINEF).

A US Embassy spokesperson, who preferred to remain anonymous, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that Fulbright previously did not offer its scholarships to education institutions under the Religious Affairs Ministry.

“We are extremely excited to have this partnership [that allows those students to] now have those chances,” the spokesperson said, adding that all educational and cultural exchanges between the US and Indonesia were “vital to our close relationship.”

Nasaruddin reminded that the same standards and requirements still applied to prospective religious student awardees, including having proper English skills.

The minister, who is also the Grand Imam of the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, further aims to have up to 15 ulema at Istiqlal undertake the Fulbright scholarship and for their number to gradually increase.

AMINEF executive director Alan Feinstein said the scholarship commission also hoped to place around 20 to 25 English teaching assistants in religiously affiliated schools.

“But it is too early to say how many [we will have],” Feinstein told the Post, noting that they do not have a specific target number.

In late 2023, then secretary-general of the Religious Affairs Ministry Nizar Ali and then US undersecretary of state for public diplomacy Elizabeth Allen signed a statement of intent to increase people-to-people exchanges between the US and Indonesia, which laid the groundwork for Wednesday’s MoU.