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International News

UNITED STATES triggered an anti-DEI keyword search that State Depart-
Fullbright foreign scholarships culled ment officials used to conduct their final review, according
to sources inside the selection process who shared details
with Inside Higher Ed in May.
A person familiar with FFSB said the board members felt
they had no choice but to resign. FFSB is a politically ap-
pointed board; the members who just resigned were indeed
all appointed by President Biden. Their resignations now
open up 11 FFSB seats, which are usually term-limited, to
Trump appointees. One person familiar with the Fulbright
program said the board members had factored this into
their decision to resign. But after being shut out from the
end of the selection process, the board members felt they
had to leave. “To continue to serve after the Administration
has consistently ignored the Board’s request that they fol-
low the law would risk legitimising actions we believe are
unlawful and damage the integrity of this storied program
Secretary of State Marco Rubio: selection process intervention and America’s credibility abroad,” the members wrote in
their letter.
ELEVEN MEMBERS OF THE 12-PERSON Ful-
bright Foreign Scholarship Board (FFSB) have re- Unintended consequences
signed over what they say is political interference
in the selection process for recipients of this prestigious
international grant, according to sources familiar with the F COLLEGE PRESIDENTS WERE HOPING President
program and a letter announcing their resignation. Donald Trump would tire of lambasting America’s
FFSB normally has final say in the selection process, Iuniversities, his latest tirades against international
after initial application reviews by the Institute for Inter- students have left them freshly agog. On June 4, Trump
national Education and host countries’ Fulbright commis- escalated his attacks against Harvard, issuing an order
sions. This year was different. Inside Higher Ed broke the suspending the university from a student-visa programme,
story in May that Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed which would stop foreigners from attending. Of wider im-
State Department officials to intervene in the final stages pact is the government’s decision to pause scheduling new
of the selection process, adding a new step to cull proposals visa interviews for foreign students, no matter where they
they felt did not comply with President Trump’s anti-DEI aim to study. Beyond the damage this is doing to Amer-
(diversity, equity and inclusion) executive orders. ica’s reputation, and its prowess in research, the tumult
In their letter, posted to Substack on June 11, the for- has bean-counters across the country’s higher-education
mer board members wrote that the State Department’s “un- system wringing their hands.
precedented” intervention in the selection process is illegal Many American colleges and universities were facing fi-
and unethical and compromised national diplomatic and nancial problems long before Trump’s return to the White
research interests. “Under Democratic and Republican ad- House. Americans have soured on higher education, after
ministrations alike, the Board has followed the law, operat- years in which participation grew fast. The share of high-
ing with independence pursuant to its statutory mandate,” school leavers going straight to college fell from around
they wrote. “The current administration has usurped the 70 percent in 2016 to 62 percent in 2022. Last December,
authority of the Board and denied Fulbright awards to a Moody’s, a rating agency, said a third of private universities
substantial number of individuals who were selected.” and a fifth of public ones are operating in the red.
Sources familiar with the program, who spoke with In- Foreign students are not an antidote, but they are help-
side Higher Ed on background to avoid retaliation, said ing offset some pain. The million or so foreigners studying
State Department officials — led by Darren Beattie, under- in America are roughly double the number of 2000. They
secretary for diplomacy and public affairs — rejected more pay far higher fees than locals for undergraduate courses —
than 20 percent of the FFSB’s selected finalists in a last- in some public universities as much as three times the rate,
minute intervention. For example, of the approximately says William Brustein, who has led international strategy at
900 approved applicants for the U.S. Visiting Scholars several of them. Over half the foreigners are postgraduates;
program, Beattie vetoed roughly 200. these courses tend to bring outsize profits.
Many of the scholars culled had focused on the effects Though America has more foreign students than any
of climate change and gender disparities; others seemed other country, it seems to have room for more: they make
to have been vetoed based on their inclusion of words that up only about 6 percent of students in higher education,

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