The Development of Federal Aid for U.S.

Students at Home and Abroad from 1945 to 1961

by

David Comp

Working Draft
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In 1945, as a direct response to the tragedy of World War II, 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. Fulbright (1976) stated that “it is…fair to say that the Exchange

Program is an instrument of foreign policy, not just for the Untied States, for all participating

nations – as well as a memorable educational experience for the individual participants” (p. 2).

The Fulbright Act set in motion a great history of international exchange between the United

States and the rest of the world. The international educational exchange and foreign language

components from additional legislation such as The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange

Act of 1948 (also known as The Smith-Mundt Act), amendments to The Mutual Security Act of

1951, and The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 were consolidated into The

Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (better known as The Fulbright-Hays

Act). In addition to the international educational exchange legislation and related funding that

came during this time period (1945 to 1961) the federal government also focused significant

attention and energy on increasing and funding scientific research. During these early years of

the Cold War the federal government understood that international educational exchange and

foreign language study were both essential to the U.S. national security efforts and were just as

important as the major scientific research of the time.

One afternoon in late September, 1945 during a routine session of the United States

Senate, then freshman Senator J. William Fulbright took the floor and made the following

statement:

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to introduce a bill for reference to the
Committee on Military Affairs, authorizing the use of credits established abroad
for the promotion of international good will through the exchange of students in
fields of education, culture, and science (Johnson and Colligan, 1967).
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Senator Fulbright’s proposed to fund these exchanges through the sale of surplus United States

property (primarily from the military) to allies and other countries at the conclusion of World

War II. 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 (Johnson and Colligan, 1967). The

Fulbright Act was signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on August 1, 1946. 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. Since the initial funding of the program from sales of surplus property the

primary source of funding is appropriated annually by the United States Congress to the United

States Department of State (Fulbright.org). Additionally, participating countries are expected to

contribute finances to the program but these resources are dwarfed by the funds allocated by the

United States. The Fulbright Program was (and remains) a competitive scholarship process. The

review and selection of Fulbright fellows focused primarily on academic merit rather than on

financial need. During the selection process, weight was not to be given with respect to financial

need (it was a secondary consideration), the educational level of the application, or to the

geographical distribution of applicants (Board of Foreign Scholarships, 1986). This remains true

today except that specific quotas are set for individual countries or specific regions of the world.

Also in 1945, U.S. Senators Magnuson, Kilgore and Fulbright sponsored legislation in an

effort to establish a national research foundation. According to Teeter (1945) the bills sponsored

by Senator Magnuson and Senator Kilgore proposed “the creation of an independent agency of

the federal government for the supervision of federal funds to be appropriated for the support of
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scientific research in the basic sciences, medicine, the development of new weapons,

scholarships and fellowships for the training of talented individuals in science, and for the

creation of facilities to assist in the interchange of scientific information” (p. 455). Senator

Fulbright’s bill was limited to the creation of an arm of the Department of Commerce that

allowed industrial use of inventions submitted to the government by inventors (Teeter, 1945, p.

455). Due to much spirited debate on Capital Hill on both the Magnuson and Kilgore Bills and

about what the end result of a national science foundation would look like, the signing of the

National Science Foundation (NSF) Act was delayed for five years until it was eventually signed

into law in 1950 by President Harry S. Truman. The National Science Foundation (NSF) Act of

1950 “rejuvenated research in higher education by creating and sustaining a first-class science

establishment based primarily in universities in the United States” (Vestal, 1994, p.23). Prior to

the formation of the National Science Foundation, on August 1, 1946 (the same day that

President Truman signed the Fulbright Act into law) the United States Congress established both

the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Both the

Atomic Energy Commission and the Office of Naval Research supported university research “in

fields broadly related to their respective missions” (NSF, 2000). The National Science

Foundation Act of 1950 established an independent federal agency “to promote progress of

science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…”

(National Science Foundation). While the primary focus of the National Science Foundation has

been (and continues to be) on large institutional research grants the Foundation began awarding

National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships in 1952 and they continue into present day.

In 1948 the United States Congress passed The U.S. Information and Educational

Exchange Act (also known as The Smith-Mundt Act). In addition to bringing the Voice of
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America and other operations under the Office of International Information of the U.S.

Department of State, The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act was established to

promote better understanding of the United States among the peoples of the world and to

strengthen cooperative international relations. The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange

Act also expanded the Fulbright program to include countries other than those Lend-Lease

countries originally specified in the original Fulbright Act of 1946 and facilitated the

establishment of bi-national centers around the world to coordinate the exchanges between

countries. Although the impact of The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act on U.S

higher education was quite minimal; expanding the number of participating countries in the

Fulbright Program beyond the Lend-Lease countries only two years later was an important

development of the program.

In 1957, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) launched the tiny Sputnik I

satellite thus beating the Untied States in innovation and exploration of the new and unexplored

frontier of outer space. As a result, the United States Congress passed the National Defense

Education Act of 1958 (often referred to as NDEA). The National Defense Education Act

highlighted the critical importance of education to national defense and was signed into law by

President Dwight D. Eisenhower on September 2, 1958. Scarfo states, that “by passing this

legislation, the United States Congress understood that the defense and security of the United

States were bound with education” (1998, p. 23). Vestal (1994) also highlights the importance of

the National Defense Education Act by describing it as the most important federal legislation in

international studies (p. 5). The National Defense and Education Act provided federal funding to

colleges and universities in order to develop graduate programs focusing on mathematics, the

sciences, foreign languages and area studies. According to Brown (1988) “Sputnik dramatized
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the effort but it was fought in the basements, classrooms, and auditoriums, as educators adapted

schools to the national security threat of atomic warfare and claimed a proportionate federal

reward for their trouble” (p. 68). In addition, The National Defense Education Act created the

Graduate Fellowship Program and the National Defense Student Loan Program, the precursor to

the Perkins Loan Program, which was the first federal student aid program for low-income

students.

The National Defense Education Act authorized one billion dollars of Federal aid for

twelve separate programs outlined in its ten Titles. To fully understand The National Defense

Education Act and its impact on funding higher education in the United States the ten Titles of

the Act are listed:

Title I – Declaration of that the security of the United States required the full
development of mental resources and technical skills of its young women and
men. It also prohibited federal control over the curriculum, program instruction,
administration, or personnel of an educational institution or school system.

Title II – Authorized the establishment of student loan funds, administered by the

participating institutions, for the purpose of ensuring that worthy students will not
be denied opportunity for higher education for lack of money.

Title III – Authorized financial assistance for strengthening science, mathematics,

and modern foreign language instruction.

Title IV – Designed to foster an increased supply of well-trained college and

university teachers by assisting in the expansion of facilities for their training,
promoting a wider geographical distribution of such facilities, and granting 5,500
fellowships over a period of five years.

Title V – Authorized and assisted in the establishment of testing programs to

discover able students, guidance and counseling programs for the purpose of
advising them to undertake courses of study best suited to their abilities, aptitudes,
and skills, to encourage them to complete their secondary education, and to
prepare themselves for admission to colleges and universities of their choice.

Title VI – Authorized the establishment of area and language centers as well,

summer and academic-year institutes and modern foreign language fellowships.
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Title VII – Authorized the awarding of research grants and contracts for research
designed to develop more effective educational media and techniques.

Title VIII – Authorized the establishment of area vocational programs for the
purpose of training students in technical skills essential to the national defense
effort.

Title IX – Authorized the National Science Foundation to establish a Science

Information Service and a Science Information Council.

Title X – Reinforced and complemented the other objectives of the Act by

encouraging the development of efficient methods of gathering and disseminating
statistical and other data so that state education agencies will be able to provide
reliable and current information. (Flemming, 1960, pp. 134-136).

The National Defense Education Act had a substantial impact on graduate education and

research during its time. As with all federal funding programs, The National Defense Education

Act certainly had its share of criticism. Rosenzweig (1963) suggested that the National Defense

Graduate Fellowship Program as involved in the following policy controversies: aid to church-

related institutions, segregation, the federal interest in non-science education, and the tendency

of federal funds to concentrate at a few institutions (p. 1). Despite the controversies and

concerns, The National Defense Education Act of 1958 was landmark legislation that brought

significant federal attention to higher education and how it was funded, both at the institutional

level as well as at the individual student level.

The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (commonly known as the

Fulbright-Hays 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 in the United

States. As previously mentioned, the international educational exchange and foreign language

components from the original Fulbright Act of 1946 and additional legislation such as The U.S.

Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (Smith-Mundt Act), amendments to The

Mutual Security Act of 1951, and The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 were
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consolidated into The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (better known as

The Fulbright-Hays Act). The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act is quite extensive

and it includes a variety of programs that provide funding for and have an impact on higher

education in the United States.

Scarfo (1998) notes that section 102 of the Fulbright-Hays Act authorized a range of

cultural, technical and educational exchange activities but section 102(b)(6) focused entirely on

education in foreign languages and area studies across American higher education (p. 24).

According to the International Education Programs Service in the Office of Postsecondary

Education (OPE) of the United States Department of Education the “Fulbright-Hays is viewed as

the overseas counterpart to the domestic capacity-building Title VI programs” (of the National

Security Education Act of 1958). The Fulbright-Hays Act originally provided financial support

for the following four initiatives: Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA), Faculty

Research Abroad (FRA), Group Projects Abroad (GPA), and Foreign Curriculum Consultants

(FCC) (OPE and Scarfo, 1998). The Fulbright-Hays Act remains law today and represents the

world’s flagship international educational exchange policy and program. The Fulbright Program

is the largest U.S. international exchange program offering opportunities for students, scholars,

and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university

teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide.

The history of the federal government’s involvement of providing both institutional

funding and individual student financial aid and scholarships packages has been both long and

interesting. This cannot be more true than the federal function of financing higher education

during the period of 1945 to 1961. From Senator’s proposal in 1945 to the signing of The

Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act by President Kennedy in 1961, this time period
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saw the development of a new vision and purpose of education in the United States and the

federal government’s responsibility in funding these new visions and purposes.

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References

Board of Foreign Scholarships. (1986, December). Forty years: The Fulbright program

1946-1986, Twenty-third annual report of the Board of Foreign Scholarships. Washington, DC:

U.S. Information Agency.

Brown, J. (1988). “A is for atom, B is for bomb”: Civil defense in American public

education, 1948-1963. The Journal of American History, 75 (1), 68-90.

Flemming, A.S. (1960, January). The philosophy and objectives of The National

Defense Education Act. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, (327),

132-138.

The Fulbright Act of 1946 (Public Law 584; 79th Congress).

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privileged to engage in during my years in the senate. The Annals of the American Academy of

Political and Social Science, 424, 1-5.

Fulbright.org (date unknown). About Fulbright. Cyprus: Fulbright.org. URL retrieved

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Johnson, W., & Colligan, F.J. (1967). The Fulbright program: A history. Chicago: The

University of Chicago Press.

The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, 22 U.S.C. § 2458a.

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Science Foundation. URL retrieved November 20, 2006 from the World Wide Web:

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind00/access/intro.htm.

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Rosenzweig, R.M. (1963). NDEA Title IV after four years: A record of substantial

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Education, 16 (9), 455-459.

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