Fulbright Program

History and Funding

In September 1945, Senator James William Fulbright from Arkansas introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress to promote international goodwill through educational exchange. President Harry S. Truman signed it into law on August 1, 1946, creating the Fulbright Program. The legislation earmarked part of the proceeds from the sale of surplus U.S. war materials in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific to fund exchanges between the United States and countries where such funding was available. By 1953, a total of 27 countries had concluded binational agreements with the U.S. government establishing binational commissions that were entrusted with the management of the exchanges.

With the depletion of the revenues from the sale of U.S. war material surpluses overseas, a new funding approach was necessary. The Fulbright–Hays Act of 1961 made the Fulbright Program a line item in the U.S. federal budget and provided those partner countries with bilateral agreements and commissions with opportunities to contribute toward the costs of the program, making binational cofinancing an attribute of the program. In recent decades, partner government contributions have grown dramatically. In 2017, they totaled over $100 million per annum, whereas the U.S. government allocation to the global Fulbright Program was $240 million. In many countries with binational commissions, the partner governments’ contributions surpass that of the U.S. government.

Since its inception, the Fulbright Program also has relied on the support of nongovernmental actors, including direct and in-kind contributions from higher education institutions, research agencies, and private foundations. More recently, in some countries, alumni support, private donors, and corporate sponsorship are of increasing importance. There are significant differences between countries in how the program is funded.

The Fulbright–Hays Act also provided the U.S. State Department with the flexibility to extend the program to countries without binational agreements or commissions, which created a different category of Fulbright Programs run unilaterally by U.S. embassies. This multiplied the number of countries participating in the program. These embassy-based programs are funded almost entirely by U.S. government allocations.

Mandate and Objectives

The preamble of the Fulbright–Hays Act of 1961 defines the mandate of the Fulbright Program: “to increase mutual understanding between the people [Page 572]of the United States and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange.”

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