The Fulbright Academic Exchange Program was established by Congress in 1946 to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and people of other countries. The program is sponsored by the United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Program planning and administration are outlined by the academic and cultural exchange priorities of the Bureau and are overseen by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, a body of presidential appointees who are ultimately responsible for choosing both grantees and participating institutions. The Fulbright Commissions, which set priorities and select grantees and students in each participating country are characterized by joint funding and equal U.S.–host country representation. Where binational commissions are not established, Public Affairs Section representatives at each U.S. Embassy carry out much of the administration of the Fulbright Program in collaboration with local educators. The exchanges themselves are also binational, providing support for U.S. students and professionals to engage in academic work elsewhere and for citizens of other countries to study and teach in the United States. The competition for Fulbright scholarships is open, and the Commissions and Public Affairs sections are committed to advising all those interested in studying in the United States.

Although the Fulbright Exchange Program allocates most of its funds to individuals, it also supports educational exchange organizations. These "cooperating agencies," of which LASPAU is one, receive funds to manage Fulbright programs in accordance with guidelines established by the J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board. Since 2001, LASPAU and IIE have been collaborating on the administration of the Fulbright Program in the western hemisphere.

LASPAU and the Fulbright Program

In 1975, after nearly a decade of experience implementing a faculty development program for professors from Latin American universities with financial support from the USAID, LASPAU approached the Fulbright Program about including the faculty development program under the umbrella of the Fulbright student and scholar exchanges. Fulbright–LASPAU efforts first took root primarily in South America and the Dominican Republic, but were expanded to countries of the English-speaking Caribbean and Haiti in 1979 and, in significant numbers, to Central America in 1985. In the 1980's, the success of the faculty development work led to other associations between the Fulbright Program and LASPAU, including the Central American Program of Undergraduate Scholarships (CAMPUS); the Central American University Partnership Program; the Amazon Basin Scholarship Program, and the Caribbean and Central American Ecology Program. In 2001, the Fulbright Program and LASPAU formed a partnership with the IACD of the OAS to expand the former Amazon Basin and Ecology Programs, creating the Fulbright-OAS Ecology Program.

The specialized programs created by Fulbright and LASPAU over more than three decades are fulfilling the goals of both organizations to increase understanding among the countries of the Americas. The success of the collaboration is shown not only in the substantial roster of grantees who have been placed in U.S. graduate programs, but also in the knowledge and cross-cultural experience that Fulbright grantees carry with them when they return to their home countries.

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