In 1945, as a direct response to the tragedy of World War II, Senator J. William Fulbright introduced legislation sponsoring exchange programs for students and faculty between the United States and foreign countries that was eventually signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on August 1, 1946. Fulbright (1976) stated that “it is…fair to say that the Exchange Program is an instrument of foreign policy, not just for the Untied States, for all participating nations – as well as a memorable educational experience for the individual participants” (p. 2). The Fulbright Act set in motion a great history of international exchange between the United States and the rest of the world. The international educational exchange and foreign language components from additional legislation such as The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (also known as The Smith-Mundt Act), amendments to The Mutual Security Act of 1951, and The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 were consolidated into The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (better known as The Fulbright-Hays Act). In addition to the international educational exchange legislation and related funding that came during this time period (1945 to 1961) the federal government also focused significant attention and energy on increasing and funding scientific research. During these early years of the Cold War the federal government understood that international educational exchange and foreign language study were both essential to the U.S. national security efforts and were just as important as the major scientific research of the time.
One afternoon in late September, 1945 during a routine session of the United States Senate, then freshman Senator J. William Fulbright took the floor and made the following statement:
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to introduce a bill for reference to the
Committee on Military Affairs, authorizing the use of credits established abroad for the promotion of international good will through the exchange of students in fields of education, culture, and science (Johnson and Colligan, 1967).
Senator Fulbright’s proposed to fund these exchanges through the sale of surplus United States Senator Fulbright proposed a Bill to amend the Surplus Property Act of 1944 to designate the Department of State as the disposal agency for surplus property outside the United States, its territories and possessions, and for other purposes (Johnson and Colligan, 1967). The Fulbright Act was signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on August 1, 1946. The first participants in the program from the United States received funding to study in the 38 countries that received money and/or equipment as a result of the Lend-Lease Act of 1941. Additionally, students from these 38 Lend-Lease countries received Fulbright Program funding to study in the United States. Since the initial funding of the program from sales of surplus property the primary source of funding is appropriated annually by the United States Congress to the United States Department of State (Fulbright.org). Additionally, participating countries are expected to contribute finances to the program but these resources are dwarfed by the funds allocated by the United States. The Fulbright Program was (and remains) a competitive scholarship process. The review and selection of Fulbright fellows focused primarily on academic merit rather than on financial need. During the selection process, weight was not to be given with respect to financial need (it was a secondary consideration), the educational level of the application, or to the geographical distribution of applicants (Board of Foreign Scholarships, 1986). This remains true today except that specific quotas are set for individual countries or specific regions of the world. property (primarily from the military) to allies and other countries at the conclusion of World War II.
In 1948 the United States Congress passed The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act (also known as The Smith-Mundt Act). In addition to bringing the Voice of America and other operations under the Office of International Information of the U.S. Department of State, The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act was established to promote better understanding of the United States among the peoples of the world and to strengthen cooperative international relations. The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act also expanded the Fulbright program to include countries other than those Lend-Lease countries originally specified in the original Fulbright Act of 1946 and facilitated the establishment of bi-national centers around the world to coordinate the exchanges between countries. Although the impact of The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act on U.S higher education was quite minimal; expanding the number of participating countries in the Fulbright Program beyond the Lend-Lease countries only two years later was an important development of the program.
In 1957, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) launched the tiny Sputnik I satellite thus beating the Untied States in innovation and exploration of the new and unexplored frontier of outer space. As a result, the United States Congress passed the National Defense Education Act of 1958 (often referred to as NDEA). The National Defense Education Act highlighted the critical importance of education to national defense and was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on September 2, 1958. Scarfo states, that “by passing this legislation, the United States Congress understood that the defense and security of the United States were bound with education” (1998, p. 23). Vestal (1994) also highlights the importance of the National Defense Education Act by describing it as the most important federal legislation in international studies (p. 5). The National Defense and Education Act provided federal funding to colleges and universities in order to develop graduate programs focusing on mathematics, the sciences, foreign languages and area studies. According to Brown (1988) “Sputnik dramatized the effort but it was fought in the basements, classrooms, and auditoriums, as educators adapted schools to the national security threat of atomic warfare and claimed a proportionate federal reward for their trouble” (p. 68). In addition, The National Defense Education Act created the Graduate Fellowship Program and the National Defense Student Loan Program, the precursor to the Perkins Loan Program, which was the first federal student aid program for low-income students.
The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (commonly known as the Fulbright-Hays Act), which was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy, is linked to much of the post-World War II legislation that provided funding to higher education in the United States. As previously mentioned, the international educational exchange and foreign language components from the original Fulbright Act of 1946 and additional legislation such as The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (Smith-Mundt Act), amendments to The Mutual Security Act of 1951, and The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 were consolidated into The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (better known as The Fulbright-Hays Act). The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act is quite extensive and it includes a variety of programs that provide funding for and have an impact on higher education in the United States.
Scarfo (1998) notes that section 102 of the Fulbright-Hays Act authorized a range of cultural, technical and educational exchange activities but section 102(b)(6) focused entirely on education in foreign languages and area studies across American higher education (p. 24). According to the International Education Programs Service in the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) of the United States Department of Education the “Fulbright-Hays is viewed as the overseas counterpart to the domestic capacity-building Title VI programs” (of the National Security Education Act of 1958). The Fulbright-Hays Act originally provided financial support for the following four initiatives: Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA), Faculty Research Abroad (FRA), Group Projects Abroad (GPA), and Foreign Curriculum Consultants (FCC) (OPE and Scarfo, 1998). The Fulbright-Hays Act remains law today and represents the world’s flagship international educational exchange policy and program. The Fulbright Program is the largest U.S. international exchange program offering opportunities for students, scholars, and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide.
The history of the federal government’s involvement of providing both institutional funding and individual student financial aid and scholarships packages has been both long and interesting. This cannot be more true than the federal function of financing higher education during the period of 1945 to 1961. From Senator’s proposal in 1945 to the signing of The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act by President Kennedy in 1961, this time period saw the development of a new vision and purpose of education in the United States and the federal government’s responsibility in funding these new visions and purposes.
References
Board of Foreign Scholarships. (1986, December). Forty years: The Fulbright program 1946-1986, Twenty-third annual report of the Board of Foreign Scholarships. Washington, DC: U.S. Information Agency.
Brown, J. (1988). “A is for atom, B is for bomb”: Civil defense in American public education, 1948-1963. The Journal of American History, 75 (1), 68-90.
Flemming, A.S. (1960, January). The philosophy and objectives of The National Defense Education Act. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Scienc, (327), 132-138.
The Fulbright Act of 1946 (Public Law 584; 79th Congress).
Fulbright, J.W. (1976). The most significant and important activity I have been privileged to engage in during my years in the senate. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Scienc, 424, 1-5.
Fulbright.org (date unknown). About Fulbright. Cyprus: Fulbright.org. URL retrieved November 27, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.fulbright.org.cy/fulworld.htm.
Johnson, W., & Colligan, F.J. (1967). The Fulbright program: A history. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, 22 U.S.C. § 2458a. National Science Foundation. (2000). Science and engineering indicators. National Science Foundation. URL retrieved November 20, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind00/access/intro.htm.
Office of Postsecondary Education (date unknown). The history of Title VI and Fulbright-Hays: An impressive international timeline. Washington, DC” International Education Programs Service, Office of Postsecondary Education, United States Department of Education. URL retrieved November 27, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/iegps/history.html.
Rosenzweig, R.M. (1963). NDEA Title IV after four years: A record of substantial Achievement. The Journal of Higher Education, 34 (1), 1-9.
Scarfo, R.D. (1998). The history of Title VI and Fulbright-Hays. In J.N. Hawkins, C.M. Haro, M.A. Kazanjian, G.W. Merkx and D. Wiley (Eds.), International education in the new global era: Proceedings of a national policy conference on The Higher Education Act, Title VI, and Fulbright-Hays Programs (pp. 23-25). Los Angeles: International Studies and Overseas Programs, University of California Los Angeles.
Teeter, J.H. (1945, December). Federal aid to research. The Journal of Higher Education, 16 (9), 455-459.
The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act (Public Law 402; 80th Congress).
Vestal, T.M. (1994). International education: Its history and promise for today. Westport, CT: Praeger.
