Greetings from New Delhi!
The Fulbright Program forms a vital link academic, professional, personal between the United States and more than 155 countries. Since the program was created by Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946, the Fulbright Program has grown into the premier US international educational exchange program in the world. In more than sixty years, Fulbright has provided opportunities to some 300,000 American and international scholars and students.
The binational United States - India Educational Foundation was among the earliest of the Fulbright Commissions or Foundations. On February 2, 1950 Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and US Ambassador to India Loy Henderson signed a treaty-level bilateral agreement to implement and administer a country Fulbright Program on behalf of the partner governments.
Since its inception, USIEF has awarded approximately 8,200 Fulbright grants funded by the US Department of State in a full range of academic disciplines. USIEF has also administered 8,700 other awards, including the US Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays and the East-West Center grants, for a total of around 17,000 awards in the last 61 years.
On July 4, 2008 the US and India signed a historic new Fulbright agreement making India a full partner with the United States in the governance and funding of the Fulbright Program. The US-India Educational Foundation awards Fulbright-Nehru scholarships under the agreement, which also permits private sector support for the program. The increase in exchanges under the agreement has allowed for the development of new and innovative programs, such as the Fulbright-Nehru English Language Teaching Assistant Program for recent American college graduates, the Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Program for Indian and American higher education professionals, and the Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair for full professors with a prominent record of scholarly accomplishment and substantial teaching experience.
Thanks to the new agreement, the Fulbright-Nehru Program has literally tripled in funding and the number of grantees since 2008. India now has the largest US Fulbright scholar program, which provides 80 grants to US Scholars to research and teach in India each academic year.
With the new Fulbright-Nehru agreement in place, USIEF has been working to further increase US-India education cooperation through support of the office of US - India Higher Education Cooperation. The office is creating a framework to enhance information exchange and proactively support activities to facilitate higher education collaboration and research partnerships.
USIEF is also a strong supporter of educational advising and plays an important role in the EducationUSA network. Our expertise on the higher education systems in both countries and on the interests and needs of Indian students has been recognized by US higher education institutions as crucial to their efforts to promote their institutions to Indian students.
With increased support from the US State Department, USIEF has been able expand the reach of the EducationUSA offices in India to ensure that we are able to reach a wider audience of Indian students eager for accurate, comprehensive information and guidance on studying in the US
USIEF is also instrumental in promoting opportunities for young Americans to study in India. USIEF hosts the annual Association of US Academic Programs in India (AUSAPI) conference which brings together study abroad directors for workshops and meetings. USIEF was also instrumental in supporting an IIE project on study abroad capacity building in India.
USIEF has a rich history of over sixty years of promoting mutual understanding through educational and cultural exchanges. We look forward to continuing to build bridges and to supporting our future leaders through the Fulbright Program.
Adam Grotsky October 1, 2011
Executive Director
United States - India Educational Foundation
To learn more about Mr. Adam J. Grotsky please click here.
