In Next U.S. Budget, Outlook for International-Education Programs Is Gloomy

By Ian Wilhelm, Vancouver, British Columbia. With U.S. lawmakers focused on decreasing government spending, administrators of American universities will need to fight simply to keep some federal international-education programs alive, said speakers at the annual meeting here of Nafsa: Association of International Educators. "We want to limit the damage" to student and scholar exchanges and other higher-education programs, said Michael McCarry, executive director of the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange. In the budget battles pending in Congress, he said, "some people are going to win, some people are going to lose."
The budget allocation for Fulbright scholarships and other academic activities run by the State Department could decline to between $502-million to $516-million from the current $598.8-million under plans proposed in the Republican-led the House of Representatives, said Mr. McCarry....