The U.S. Government-funded Fulbright Program was established in 1946, soon after World War II, under legislation introduced by former Senator J. William Fulbright. Designed to "increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries" the program has grown into one of the largest academic and cultural exchange programs in the world. The Fulbright Program offers grants to U.S. citizens and nationals of other countries for teaching, advanced research, graduate study and professional development. Since its inception, approximately 300,000 scholars have participated in the Fulbright Program. Over 7,000 Fulbright grants were awarded to U.S. and foreign nationals in the academic year 2008-2009.
The primary sources of funding for the Fulbright Program are annual appropriations made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education. In addition, participating governments, private organizations and host institutions in many countries and in the U.S. contribute financially through cost-sharing and other forms of support. In the U.S. Department of State, the program for foreign and U.S. scholars is administered by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs http://exchanges.state.gov under policy guidelines established by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB) http://exchanges.state.gov/education/fulbright/ffsb. The Board is a Presidentially-appointed independent body of educational and public leaders responsible for the final selection of all Fulbright grantees and the formulation of the policies, procedures, and selection criteria governing the program. Currently, the program operates in 155 countries. It is administered by binational Fulbright Commissions and Foundations in 50 countries and by U.S. Embassies in others. Under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of State, the Institute of International Education (IIE) www.iie.org, Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) www.cies.org and the Academy for Educational Development www.aed.org also assist in administering the Fulbright Program for students, teachers and professionals worldwide.
