Senator J. William Fulbright

In 1946, the visionary U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright founded the Fulbright Program of international education and cultural exchange. Though now deceased, former Senator J. William Fulbright will live on in the minds and hearts of the hundreds of thousands who have had the honor to be known as "Fulbright Scholars". It was he who conceived the idea of the post-World War II educational exchange program, and brought it to a reality in 1948.

Fulbright himself had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and president of the University of Arkansas at age 34. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives at age 35, and at 39 he became a Senator. For 16 of his 30 years in the Senate, he chaired the Foreign Relations Committee. Politically, he fought hard for peace initiatives and non-military solutions. He was an advocate of mutual understanding between cultures and détente long before they were in vogue.

The Fulbright Act of 1945 was an amendment to the Surplus Property Act of 1944. That act appointed the Department of State to be the agency responsible for disposal of surplus war property not on U.S. soil. The resulting funds were to be used by Americans to study in Lend Lease countries and Lend Lease country students to study in the United States.

The Smith-Mundt Act, three years later, broadened the Fulbright Program to countries other than those Lend Lease countries specified in the original law. It also facilitated the establishment of bi-national centers around the world to coordinate the exchanges between the countries. In 1961, the Fulbright-Hays legislation was passed, extending the Program’s reach even further, and increasing it’s activities.

Senator Fulbright’s focus was constantly world and peace oriented. He had a strong, unshakable belief that international education would provide a base for the basic understanding and contact necessary for a peaceful world order. As he said in his 1983 speech to the Council for International Education:

"Education is the best means - probably the only means - by which nations can cultivate a degree of objectivity about each other’s behavior and intentions... Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations."

Overview of the Program
Approximately 6,000 new grants are awarded to individuals annually through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). Grants are given to American students, teachers, and scholars to study, teach, lecture and conduct research in more than 155 countries in the world, and to foreign nationals to engage in similar activities in the United States.

Individuals are selected on the basis of academic or professional qualifications and potential, plus ability and willingness to share ideas and experiences with people of diverse cultures.

The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the ECA. Participating governments, as well as host institutions in the United States and abroad, contribute through cost-sharing, as well as by indirect support such as salary supplements, tuition waivers and university housing.

The Congressional appropriation for the Fulbright Program in fiscal year 2008 was $215.40 million. Foreign governments, through their bi-national commissions or foundations contributed an additional $60 million directly to the Fulbright Program..

Under the umbrella term Fulbright Program are a variety of exchange programs, including several types of individual and institutional grants.

Administration of the Program
The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board was created by Congress to supervise the educational exchange program. The intent was to establish an impartial and independent body which would assure the respect and cooperation of the academic world for the educational exchange program, particularly in the selection of grantees and of educational institutions qualified to participate. The Board sets policies and procedures for administration of the program, has final responsibility for selection of all grantees, and supervises the conduct of the program both in the United States and abroad. Appointed by the President of the United States, the Board is composed of 12 members drawn from academic, cultural and public life.

Bi-national Commissions
There are 50 active Fulbright Commissions in countries which have entered into executive agreements with the United States to conduct a program of educational exchanges. They are always bi-national, composed equally of distinguished national educators and cultural leaders and Americans from the U.S. Embassy and resident American community. A commission’s purpose is to administer the educational exchange program on an impartial and bi-national basis, to assure that grantees and educational institutions participating in the program are qualified to do so, and to plan and propose educational exchanges that are in keeping with the needs and educational resources of each country.
The Fulbright Program is not only administered by Fulbright Commissions- there are actually active Fulbright programs in more than 155 countries in every region of the world.

Cooperating Agencies
To supervise day-to-day operations of the program, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) contracts for the services of the following agencies.

The Institute of International Education (IIE) handles day-to-day supervision of foreign student grantees in the United States and assists in a preliminary review of American student candidates competing for awards.

The Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), affiliated with the American Council of Learned Societies, conducts a preliminary selection of American lecturer and research scholar candidates and assists in the day-to-day administration of the exchange program for research scholars and lecturers from abroad.

In addition to the two primary cooperating agencies, several other organizations play important roles in the Fulbright academic exchange program. These include the Latin American Scholarship Program of American Universities (LASPAU), the America-Mideast Educational and Training Services (AMIDEAST), and the Committee on Scholarly Communication with China (CSCC).
 

USEFUL LINKS
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
AMIDEAST
IIE
CIES