Funding

• The U.S. Congress appropriates money to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).  This Congressional appropriation makes up the majority of the Fulbright Program’s funding.  Part of this appropriation goes to the U.S. Department of Education for the administration of the separate Fulbright-Hays Program. 

• In addition, partner governments also contribute funding to the Program through the binational Fulbright Commissions and other organizations.  Private donors, including organizations, corporations and individuals worldwide, also contribute to Fulbright’s funding.  Furthermore, in-kind donations from both the private and public sectors globally support the Fulbright Program.  Host universities contribute significantly to the program by offering partial or full tuition waivers to participants.  On occasion, ECA may receive funds through an interagency transfer from another government agency, such as USAID, to fund Fulbright grants.

• ECA works with binational Fulbright Commissions, the Public Affairs Sections (PAS) of U.S. Embassies worldwide and cooperating agencies (Institute of International Education – IIE, Council for the International Exchange of Scholars – CIES, LASPAU: Academic and Professional Program for the Americas, America-Mideast Educational and Training Services, Inc. – AMIDEAST and the Academy for Educational Development – AED) to administer the Fulbright Program.

Application Process

• U.S. applicants (U.S. citizens) apply either through their university or college or at-large to the cooperating agency responsible for the program in which they are interested:

o IIE: U.S. Student Program
o CIES: U.S. Scholar Program
o AED: U.S. Teacher Exchange Program

The cooperating agencies then recommend U.S. applicants who have passed initial screening to the binational Fulbright Commissions or to the PAS of U.S. Embassies (in countries without a Commission) in the application country for their recommendation.

• Non-U.S. applicants (non-U.S. citizens) apply to either the Fulbright Commission in their country of citizenship or the PAS of the U.S. Embassy in their country of citizenship (in countries where there is not a Fulbright Commission).

• The binational Fulbright Commissions and the PAS of the U.S. Embassies recommend both U.S. and non-U.S. candidates to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB).  The FSB makes the final selections for candidates.

• Placement of selected applicants varies by the type of grant.  Generally, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program participants propose their own institutional affiliation in the host country when applying.  Participants in the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant and English Teaching Assistant programs are assigned their host institutions.  The Fulbright Scholar Program and the Fulbright Teacher Exchange programs generally match participants with host institutions wanting their particular expertise or area of specialization.