U.S.

Students Studying Abroad and

U.S. Public Diplomacy Efforts
A Historical Review
Comparative & International Education Society
2010 Annual Conference

David Comp
Doctoral Student in Cultural & Educational Policy Studies
Loyola University Chicago

Senior Adviser for International Initiatives in The College

The University of Chicago
 Abstract
This research is inspired by the scholarly works of Joseph Nye and
Aaron Benavot.

My thesis is that the United States Government is acutely aware of

the impact that international students have on the United States
while studying here and is optimistic that these students will apply
democratic principles and systems upon return to their home
countries. Additionally, the United States government has been
very supportive of sending a growing number of United States
students to study abroad each year. This research examines the
international education policy of the United States since the 1930’s
and the efforts taken to send more United States students abroad.
The objective is to determine the effectiveness of funding/sending
students abroad towards the public diplomacy goals and efforts of
the United States.

Only select pieces of legislation have been highlighted for this discussion.
 First Citizen & Academic Exchange
Diplomacy Efforts
of the United States?
• Perhaps the first citizen and academic exchange diplomacy efforts coordinated by
the United States government was in Latin America during the 1930’s in an effort
to combat the growing influence and infiltration of German and Nazi propaganda
on the continent.

• During the 1936 Pan American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace in Buenos
Aires the delegation from the United States proposed a Convention for the
Promotion of Inter-American Cultural Relations which received unanimous
approval from the other delegations.

• The 1936 Buenos Aires Convention called for the exchange of peoples in an effort
to strengthen Intellectual cooperation and cultural relations between the United
States and other Latin American countries.

• These exchanges were to include nongovernmental groups of people such as

college faculty, youth groups, and representatives from social service organizations
and labor unions.
 During and in the immediate years
after World War II
• During World War II the Offices of the Secretary of State, Secretary of
War and the Provost-Marshal General developed special intellectual
diversion programs in the Allied prisoner-of-war camps to re-educate
prisoners and provide English language training. It is estimated that
approximately 350,000 German prisoners-of-war participated in the re-
education programs and they took what they learned in these programs and
from their exposure to America back to Germany where many became
teachers and some even returned to the United States while participating in
future exchange programs.

• In 1947 the United States Office of Military Government in collaboration

with the United States Department of State initiated a new foreign policy
program that would bring almost 10,000 German citizens to the United
States to learn about democratic principles and the American way of life.
 The Fulbright Act of 1946
• U.S. 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.

• 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.

• 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.
 The Mutual Educational and Cultural
Exchange Act of 1961 [1]

The international educational exchange and foreign language

components from additional legislation such as The U.S.
Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948,
amendments to The Mutual Security Act of 1951, and The
National Defense Education Act of 1958 were consolidated
into The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of
1961. The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange 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 and thus international
exchange in the United States.
[1] Commonly referred to as the Fulbright-Hays Act
 1970’s and 1980’s
• The international educational exchange industry continued to prosper during the
1970’s and 1980’s and the opportunities to participate on international educational
exchange programs were made available to more and more students.

• This time period saw very little in the way of significant legislation and federal
initiatives related to international education and cultural exchange.
– 1985 U.S.-USSR Education Exchange Agreement
– New legislation related to international education primarily focused on reauthorization of previous
legislation such as the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act which, when it was
reauthorized in 1979, established the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) at Georgetown
University.

• The International Student Exchange Program is a network of post-secondary

institutions across the U.S. that cooperates to provide international education
opportunities to students from member institutions. The International Student
Exchange Program was initially funded by a grant from the United States
Information Agency (USIA).
 The National Security Education Act of 1991

• The National Security Education Act of 1991 established the Boren National
Security Education Program Trust Fund to provide:
– 1) scholarships for undergraduate study abroad;
– 2) graduate foreign language and area studies fellowships; and,
– 3) university grants to create or improve foreign language and area studies program.

• The National Security Education Act brought with it much controversy and many
concerns in the academic community:
– 1) the Boren National Security Education Program Trust Fund was placed under and
administered by the Defense Intelligence College which is part of the United States
Department of Defense with the National Security Education Board, chaired by the
United States Secretary of Defense, providing guidance and oversight.
– 2) Having an international education “Trust Fund” housed under and administered by the
United States Department of Defense rather than under the auspices of the United States
Departments of State or Education, or even Commerce for that matter, was a radical shift
in the goals of international education funding in the United States.
– 3) recipients of National Security Education Program funding were held to a service
requirement with any agency in the Federal government whose work deals with U.S.
national security issues, broadly defined.
 The International Academic
Opportunity Act of 2000
• The International Academic Opportunity Act of 2000
created the Benjamin A. Gilman International
Scholarship Program which is sponsored by the
United States Department of State and provides
awards to U.S. undergraduate students at two- and
four-year colleges and universities who receive
federal Pell Grant funding to study abroad.

• This was the last piece of international education

legislation before the tragic events of September 11,
2001.
 Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad
Foundation Act 2009
• The Simon Act sets the goal that “in ten years' time at least
one million American college students from diverse
backgrounds will study abroad annually in locations across the
globe, with an emphasis on destinations in developing
countries. To achieve this goal, the legislation establishes an
innovative new structure that will provide financial support to
students to study abroad, while at the same time requiring U.S.
higher education institutions to address the on-campus factors
that currently impede students' ability to study abroad.”
• The Simon Act was approved by the U.S. House of
Representatives and introduced in the U.S. Senate in 2009.
U.S. Participation in Inter-Governmental
Organization Exchange Programs
Aside from the U.S. international education and cultural
exchange legislation and programming during this time
period there were (and remain) a multitude of
international inter-governmental organizations such as the
United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), the World Health Organization
(WHO), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),
the Columbo Plan, and the Organization of American
States (OAS), for example, that offer fellowships and
grants for worldwide educational exchange opportunities,
including to and from the United States.
 Findings
• Throughout the United States’ history of international
education legislation and funding it is clear that
public diplomacy is an underlying objective of the
federal government.

• Legislative language used during the 1940’ through

the 1980’s primarilyfocused more on “mutual
understanding between cultures” while the language
used during the 1990’s and into the 2000’s has had a
much stronger tone and emphasized the benefit to the
“national security” of the United States in addition to
a goal of mutual understanding.
 Findings
• Since 2000 there has been more focus on the economic impact
of international education exchange programs to the United
States as well as for individual states.

• The years immediately following World War II and into the

1960’s the federal government and the greater higher
education community placed significant importance on the
inflow of international students and scholars into the United
States. The international education legislative focus of the
1990’s and into 2000’s has tended to favor the outflow of U.S.
students and scholars than on the inflow of academics from
abroad. What changed, however, was that major federal
legislation focusing on international students and scholars in
the United States was found more in the immigration arena.
 References
• Aaron Benavot. “Education and Political Democratization: Cross-National
and Longitudinal Findings,” in Comparative Perspectives on the Role of
Education in Democratization, ed. Noel F. McGinn and Erwin H. Epstein
(Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang GmbH, 1999).

• International Student Exchange Program. n.d. Who We Are. Available

online at <http://isep.org/About_ISEP/who_we_are.asp>.

• Walter Johnson, and Francis J. Colligan, The Fulbright Program: A

History. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1967).

• Kevin V. Mulcahy, “Cultural Diplomacy and the Exchange Programs:

1938-1978.” The Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society 29, no. 1,
(Spring 1999).
 References
• NAFSA: Association of International Educators. n.d. Senator Paul Simon Study
Abroad Foundation Act. Available online at
<http://www.nafsa.org/public_policy.sec/commission_on_the_abraham/>.

• Joseph S. Nye Jr. Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power, (New
York: Basic Books, 1990).

• Cummins E. Speakman, Jr. International Exchange in Education, (New York: The

Center for Applied Research in Education, Inc., 1966).

• Milton C. Cummings, Jr. Cultural Diplomacy and the United States Government:
A Survey. (Washington, DC: Center for Arts and Culture, 2003).

• James F. Trent, A Brief History of the German-American Fulbright Program, 1952-

2002 (German-American Fulbright Commission, date unknown).