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The Fulbright Program, 1946-1996:
An Online Exhibit

The Board of Foreign Scholarships


Introduction / Sources / History / Binational Programs / Board of Foreign Scholarships / Cooperating Agencies / Anniversaries / Grantees


The presidentially appointed Board of Foreign Scholarships, composed of twelve members drawn from academic, cultural, and public life, supervises the Fulbright Program worldwide. It establishes general policy guidelines for the administration of the program and has final responsibility for the selection of all participating grantees and institutions. The program was administered by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the Department of State until 1978, when these functions were merged with those of the United States Information Agency.

An amendment to the Fulbright-Hays Act, signed into law by President George Bush in January 1990, changed the board's formal name from the Board of Foreign Scholarships to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.



(Picture)

President's Board of Foreign Scholarships, Washington, D.C., December 11, 1953. Left to right: Philip Willkie, attorney, Rushville, Indiana; Dr. Francis S. Smyth, dean, Medical School, University of California; Helen C. White, professor of English, University of Wisconsin; Dr. Martin R. P. McGuire, professor of Greek and Latin, Catholic University of America; Dr. Charles S. Johnson, president, Fisk University; Dr. Frederick L. Hovde, president, Purdue University; Col. John N. Andrews, personal representative of the administrator of Veterans Affairs; Dr. Walter Johnson, chairman, Department of History, University of Chicago; Russell L. Riley, director, International Educational Exchange Service; Dr. Samuel M. Brownell, U.S. commissioner of education; Dr. Francis J. Colligan, executive secretary of the Board of Foreign Scholarships; Donald B. Lourie, undersecretary of state for administration; Senator Fulbright; and Joseph B. Phillips, deputy assistant secretary for public affairs.

Department of State Photograph.


(Picture)

Swearing-in ceremony for new members of the Board of Foreign Scholarships, Washington, D.C., March 16, 1967. Left to right: Dr. Fredrick B. Pike; Dr. Teruo Ihara; Dr. William G. Craig; Dr. John M. Stalnaker; Dean Rusk, secretary of state; Dr. John Hope Franklin, chairman, Board of Foreign Scholarships; Lloyd N. Hand; Edward E. Booher; and Dr. James A. Turman.

Photo: Robert H. McNeill. Department of State Photograph.


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Senator Fulbright with Lewis Webster Jones, president, University of Arkansas. October 24, 1951. President Jones served on the Board of Foreign Scholarships from 1949 until 1952. Hoyt Purvis, director of the Fulbright Institute of International Relations, was recently named chairman of the board, now called the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

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