International collaborative network between Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and partners in the United States (US) is still limited. Many areas of collaboration can actually be explored to get funding schemes in the fields of education, research, capacity building, and others. In terms of student exchange, UGM students have a keen interest in getting an opportunity to study at US universities. This is shown by the number of UGM students who choose universities in the US as their destination for the exchange program. Through the Indonesian International Student Mobility Award (IISMA) program itself, in 2021 there were 19 students participating in the exchange program from Kampus Merdeka, and in 2022 through the same program, there were 7 students registered. The IISMA program, which was initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology as a part of the Independent Learning Independent Campus (MBKM) program, is considered to be very competitive that one of the means to increase student mobility to the US is to initiate a semester-based student exchange collaboration agreement. This collaboration agreement will exempt students from tuition fees. However, many partners in the US region are reluctant to process collaboration agreements under this scheme. This reluctance is due to the consideration of the principle of reciprocity, while UGM students are keen to join student exchange programs in the US, this is not the case for US students who tend to join student exchange programs in the European region. Seeing this fact, an approach is needed to introduce the position and potential of UGM in several universities in the US region.
