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Indonesian Fulbright students seek clarity after Trump’s funding freeze
Hundreds of Indonesian students in the United States are stuck in limbo after the US State Department announced in early March the suspension of all funding for exchange and study abroad programs, including Fulbright scholarships.
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Illustration of education fund. (Shutterstock/Power pow)
United States President Donald Trump’s decision in January to freeze funding for the world’s largest aid agency, USAID, made Indah, an Indonesian master’s student in California and a Fulbright scholar, sick to the stomach.
She and her fellow Indonesian Fulbright grantees worried the US government’s policy change would affect the state-sponsorship scholarship, but the program reassured them that its funding would carry on as usual.
“But suddenly, we received an email saying that the funds had been frozen and that we would only receive a quarter of our stipend for March,” Indah told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
As Fulbright grantees are generally not allowed to work, the news brought special difficulties.
“Prices have gone up, groceries are expensive, and we still need to pay rent. Only receiving a quarter of our stipend [for the month] sent us into a panic,” said Indah, who asked that only her first name be used in this article.
Indah was among at least 7,400 foreign students studying in the US, hundreds of whom are Indonesian, who are stuck in limbo after the US State Department announced in early March the suspension of all funding for exchange and study abroad programs, including Fulbright, the world’s oldest international scholarship program, operating in more than 160 countries.
