Santa Fe College is hosting a delegation of 14 Indonesian community college administrators from May 18-29 as part of a six week Community College Administrator Program (CCAP) funded by the U.S. Department of State. The CCAP with Indonesia is administered by Florida State University with Santa Fe College as the lead community college partner.
Indonesia established a new community college system in 2012 in order to expand access to higher education. Currently, only about 10 percent of all Indonesians have a college degree. Leaders of the newly established Academi Komunitas (AK) system in Indonesia will spend two weeks in Gainesville learning about best practices in the management of a U.S. community college.
The participants from Indonesia will attend presentations by senior Santa Fe College administrators on issues such as governance, finance, leadership, workforce development and program assessment. In addition, they will participate in college classes, job shadowing, and tours of educational facilities at SF. The delegation will also spend time at Florida State University and tour other community colleges in Florida.
“These administrators are working to expand access to higher education in Indonesia,” said SF Assistant Vice President Vilma Fuentes. “Their goal is to have a total of 350 colleges within the next five years. We will highlight our best practices in the hope these administrators will find some applicability to Indonesia.”
Not only will the CCAP program provide professional development to Indonesian administrators as they develop the new AK system, it will help foster improved relations with the fourth most populous country and largest Muslim-majority country in the world.
The State Department is funding six CCAP programs for different developing countries. FSU and Santa Fe College will be managing four of these programs, benefiting community college administrators from Indonesia, India, Ukraine, and a collection of Latin American countries. A delegation from India is scheduled to arrive in the fall of this year, and delegations from Ukraine and Latin America are expected to visit in 2016.