Fulbright Connects With the Muslim World

Wed Nov 2 14:17:37 UTC 2005

>>From the Chronicle of Higher Education issue dated November 4, 2005

Fulbright Connects With the Muslim World
New and renewed programs extend outreach to key countries

By SARA LIPKA

The Fulbright Program has long emphasized that its mission is about
diplomacy as much as scholarship. In recent years the United States'
best-known academic-exchange program has focused on the Muslim world,
renewing or strengthening ties with what program officials call "critical"
countries and establishing a new short-term visiting-scholar program for
professors from predominantly Muslim countries.

"We have put more resources toward building mutual understanding" in
politically significant regions, says Thomas A. Farrell, deputy assistant
secretary for academic programs at the U.S. Department of State's Bureau
of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which oversees the
government-sponsored program.

This fall about 2,600 foreign students will come to the United States from
more than 130 countries as part of the Fulbright Program. At the same time
1,200 American students will travel abroad to take classes, conduct
research, or teach English. Participation in the Fulbright Program  which
gives grants to American and foreign scholars, as well as students  has
increased steadily since it was established in 1946. The grants are
awarded by binational Fulbright commissions, financed by the U.S.
government and the government of each country where the awards are
available.

As part of its effort to strengthen ties with predominantly Muslim
countries, the State Department reopened Fulbright exchanges with
Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003. (They were suspended in 1979 and 1989,
respectively.) This year 25 Afghan students and 42 Iraqi students will
come to the United States. American students, however, still cannot
receive Fulbright grants for either country.

The Fulbright Program is also developing exchanges with Libya, while
increasing the number of grants available in Turkey and Pakistan. With
$75-million in extra financing from the U.S. Agency for International
Development, the Fulbright Commission in Pakistan was able to send 108
students, the second most of any country, to American institutions this
year. In each of the past five years Pakistan gave grants to no more than
11 students.

The Fulbright Program has also supported outreach to high-school and
undergraduate students throughout the Muslim world in order to promote a
pool of grant applicants that represents more than a country's elites.

Among the group of foreign Fulbright students in the United States this
year are 202 foreign-language teaching assistants. Three years ago the
teaching assistants, who also take classes at their host institutions,
numbered 30. Most of the program's growth has come from adding Arabic,
Pashto, Turkish, Urdu, and other Asian and African languages, says Mr.
Farrell.

"There's no better way to convey mutual understanding than through the
ability to converse in other languages," he says, adding that many
Fulbright grantees teach at institutions where their languages would not
be offered otherwise.

Other new Fulbright programs, such as Direct Access to the Muslim World,
also attempt to reach a broad group of Americans. Under the Direct Access
program, colleges can apply to play host to a visiting scholar for three
to six weeks. "We want to focus on smaller institutions in parts of the
country where this will make a difference," says Mr. Farrell. Fifty Direct
Access scholars will come to the United States this year.

Following are three profiles of this year's Fulbright grantees, along with
a list of institutions with the largest number of Fulbright winners from
their campuses.

TOP PRODUCERS OF FULBRIGHT AWARDS FOR AMERICAN STUDENTS, BY TYPE OF
INSTITUTION, 2005-6

Research institutions Number of awards Number of applicants
U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor 26 100
Harvard U. 25 99
Yale U. 24 99
Columbia U. 23 90
U. of California at Berkeley 23 75
Stanford U. 19 71
U. of Wisconsin at Madison 18 62
Johns Hopkins U. 17 54
Brown U. 16 45
Duke U. 16 67
Princeton U. 16 66
U. of Pennsylvania 16 78
Arizona State U. main campus 14 39
Northwestern U. 14 47
Boston College 13 29
Cornell U. 12 60
U. of California at Los Angeles 12 60
U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 12 45
Dartmouth College 11 38
George Washington U. 11 36
Indiana U. at Bloomington 11 60
Tufts U. 11 40
New York U. 10 55
Georgetown U. 9 23
Ohio U. main campus 9 22
Pennsylvania State U. at University Park 9 37
U. of Texas at Austin 9 53
Washington U. in St. Louis 9 24

Master's institutions Number of awards Number of applicants
Monterey Institute of International Studies 4 4
Pacific Lutheran U. 3 7
Azusa Pacific U. 2 7
California State U. at Long Beach 2 4
City U. of New York Hunter College 2 5
Emerson College 2 3
Fairfield U. 2 21
Gonzaga U. 2 2
Morgan State U. 2 6
Pace U. Pleasantville- Briarcliff campus 2 7
Pacific U. 2 5
U. of Scranton 2 6
Valparaiso U. 2 7
Villanova U. 2 8

Bachelor's institutions Number of awards Number of applicants
Smith College 14 31
Claremont McKenna College 9 18
Wellesley College 9 30
Hamilton College 8 22
Pitzer College 8 24
College of the Holy Cross 6 15
Grinnell College 6 12
Kenyon College 6 14
Mount Holyoke College 6 16
Pomona College 6 35
Reed College 6 10
Vassar College 6 19
Wesleyan U. 6 17
Wheaton College (Mass.) 6 15
Bowdoin College 5 16
Macalester College 5 8
St. Olaf College 5 13
U. of Puget Sound 5 14
Carleton College 4 7
Earlham College 4 6
New College of Florida 4 6
Occidental College 4 8
Swarthmore College 4 26
U. of Dallas 4 10
Whitman College 4 15
Bryn Mawr College 3 7
Colby College 3 7
Juniata College 3 5
Oberlin College 3 20
Washington and Lee U. 3 9
Williams College 3 13

Other institutions Number of awards Number of applicants
Cranbrook Academy of Art 3 10
United States Military Academy 2 10
Babson College 1 1
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art 1 4
Juilliard School 1 2
Manhattan School of Music 1 1
New England Conservatory of Music 1 3
Princeton Theological Seminary 1 2
Rhode Island School of Design 1 6
San Francisco Art Institute 1 6
School of the Art Institute of Chicago 1 16
United States Air Force Academy 1 5
United States Coast Guard Academy 1 1
United States Naval Academy 1 8
U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas 1 1
U. of the Arts 1 2
NOTE: Research universities are those classified by the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as Doctoral/Research
Universities Extensive and Intensive. Master's institutions are Master's
Colleges and Universities I and II. Bachelor's institutions are
Baccalaureate Colleges Liberal Arts and General. The group of "other"
institutions includes two-year colleges and specialized institutions.
SOURCE: Institute of International Education

COUNTRIES SENDING THE MOST FULBRIGHT
STUDENTS TO THE U.S., 2005-6

Germany 265
Pakistan 108
Brazil 61
Spain  61
Turkey 53
Indonesia 50
Russia 44
India  43
Iraq 42
Tunisia 41
France 38
Austria 37
Israel 34
Norway 32
Belgium 29
Mexico 28
Chile  27
Japan  27
Afghanistan 25
Argentina 25
Italy  25
Vietnam 25
Netherlands 24
Greece 23
 21
NOTE: The number of Fulbright grants available in each country is
determined by the funds provided by that country and the United States.
SOURCE: Institute of International Education

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Volume 52, Issue 11, Page A47