Senator J. William Fulbright founded the Fulbright Program which provides the grant for the international exchange program for the scholars, graduate students, and professional educators in the year 1946. Fulbright program is a very prestigious program and it operates in more than 150 countries around the world. 300000 students have taken part in the Fulbright program and the people who take part in this program are the ones who are exceptionally good in their fields. The Fulbright Alumni has 40 Nobel Laureates in the list. Fulbright Commission is set up in 50 countries around the world and the Public Affairs department of the US embassy takes care of the program in those countries without the Fulbright commission. This program is supported by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural affairs, and also supported by partner governments, corporations, host institutions etc.
The Fulbright program was created post World War 2 in the year 1945 with the Senator J. Fulbright proposing the Fulbright program bill. It was started with an aim of promoting peace and understanding among the nations by promoting educational exchange programs. The bill was passed by President Harry S Truman on the 1st of August 1946 to create the Fulbright program which became the largest exchange program. Around 7000 grants get awarded each year.
The Fulbright program works in 2 different ways. Firstly, the US citizen gets funded to go to some foreign country for education like US Scholar program or teacher exchange programs. Secondly, a non US citizen can go to US on a foreign student program or an exchange program.
The organizations that are involved in this program are: The US Dept of state, Bureau of education and cultural affairs, The Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, The Fulbright Commissions and Public Affairs Sections, Institute of International Education, Council for International Exchange of Scholars.