Fulbright Program
LASPAU
The Fulbright Faculty Development Program brings up to 150 educators each year from Latin America and the Caribbean to the United States for advanced studies in a wide variety of disciplines. The program began in 1975 in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador and additional countries were added over time. Cost-share partners supplement the basic grant by providing tuition assistance and other forms of complementary funding. To date, over 3,000 faculty members from higher education institutions throughout the region have obtained advanced degrees or conducted research in the United States through the Fulbright Faculty Development Program. Please see the individual country listings for information on specific cost-share initiatives.
The Fulbright Academic Exchange Program was established by Congress in 1946 to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and people of other countries. The program is sponsored by the United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Program planning and administration are outlined by the academic and cultural exchange priorities of the Bureau and are overseen by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, a body of presidential appointees who are ultimately responsible for choosing both grantees and participating institutions.
The Fulbright Commissions, which set priorities and select grantees and students in each participating country are characterized by joint funding and equal U.S.–host country representation. Where binational commissions are not established, Public Affairs Section representatives at each U.S. Embassy carry out much of the administration of the Fulbright Program in collaboration with local educators. The exchanges themselves are also binational, providing support for U.S. students and professionals to engage in academic work elsewhere and for citizens of other countries to study and teach in the United States. The competition for Fulbright scholarships is open, and the Commissions and Public Affairs sections are committed to advising all those interested in studying in the United States.
In 1975, after nearly a decade of experience implementing a faculty development program for professors from Latin American universities with financial support from the USAID, LASPAU approached the Fulbright Program about including the faculty development program under the umbrella of the Fulbright Academic Exchange Program. Fulbright Faculty Development Program efforts first took root primarily in South America and the Dominican Republic, but were expanded to countries of the English-speaking Caribbean and Haiti in 1979 and, in significant numbers, to Central America in 1985.
Grantees are selected for the Fulbright Faculty Development Program based on their potential to contribute to their disciplines as well as to their academic institutions. The majority of the grantees study at the master’s level; however, doctoral and non degree study are also supported. After their studies in the United States, grantees resume teaching, research, and, in some cases, administrative positions at their home institutions, sharing the benefits of their educational experience.
The specialized programs created by Fulbright and LASPAU over more than three decades are fulfilling the goals of both organizations to increase understanding among the countries of the Americas. The success of the collaboration is shown not only in the substantial roster of grantees who have been placed in U.S. graduate programs, but also in the knowledge and cross-cultural experience that Fulbright grantees carry with them when they return to their home countries.
Information on Fulbright LASPAU scholarships for El Salvador, is only published in Spanish.
To see it, please click on this link:
http://spanish.sansalvador.usembassy.gov/educacion/laspau.html