The Fulbright Programs are directed by the United States Department of State and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It was approved by President Harry Truman in 1946 and was then founded in 1947 by the American Council of Learned Societies, National Academy of Sciences, American Council on Education, and Social Science Research Council. The U.S. Congress appropriates money to the U.S. Department of State to manage and fund the program.
The program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, which acts as the scholarly division of the Institute of International Education. It has placed to date over 50,000 U.S. faculty and professionals to travel to 140 countries to research, teach, and lecture. Additionally, the program has selected over 45,000 foreign scholars to act as visiting lecturers and researchers at U.S. institutions. Its goal is to encourage relations between academics and professionals in the U.S. with those of other countries.
