Educational Exchange in Latin America

Since its inception three decades ago, the Fulbright program in Latin America has aided individual students and Latin American educational institutions alike. The binational Fulbright commissions that select participants have earned a reputation for autonomy and fairness and have encouraged innovative programs such as cost sharing, state-of-the-art seminars, and flexible tenure provisions for U.S. scholars teaching in Latin America. As the U.S. and Latin American university systems have increasingly converged, Fulbright has also helped to introduce and promote such U.S. concepts as university-based research and decentralized higher education, as well as Latin American university commitment to social outreach. Yet some problems remain. These include competition from European and Soviet exchange programs, inadequate contact among Fulbright scholars now in the United States, and failure to maintain contact with Fulbright alumni once they have returned home. Further institution building in the Latin American educational sector also deserves greater support. The existing binational commissions provide an excellent model for the cooperation needed to address these problems, and they underscore the important role that Fulbright can continue to play in Latin America.