What Fulbright Program does
The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international academic exchange initiative, administered by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) under policy guidelines set by the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FFSB). The program was created in 1946 and is designed to foster mutual understanding between people of the United States and people of other countries through merit-based grants that support study, teaching, research, and public-service fellowships. ECA provides government oversight, while a binational network of Fulbright Commissions (in 49 countries) and U.S. embassies’ Public Affairs Sections (in roughly 100 additional countries) coordinate program priorities and operations, often jointly funded with partner governments and complemented by U.S. and foreign higher education institutions and other partners.