Fulbright Tries Out Short-Term Fellowships

From http://chronicle.com/article/Fulbright-Tries-Short-Term/135420

Fulbright Tries Out Short-Term Fellowships
By Ian Wilhelm
October 28, 2012

After more than 60 years of sending American scholars overseas, the U.S. State Department's Fulbright International Educational Exchange Program is getting a tune-up. To better accommodate the workloads of today's scholars and respond to changes in how research is conducted, the department is experimenting with new types of awards.

A few years ago, the department began the Fulbright Specialist Program, which sends academics for two to six weeks to provide assistance on curriculum development or other educational projects at foreign institutions.

The department is also starting to offer a small number of "serial grants." They allow a scholar to travel between home and abroad several times for short stints over three years. When the international-exchange program started in the 1940s, such an approach would not have worked, says Meghann Curtis, deputy assistant secretary for academic programs in the department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; but now, with online tools like Skype, a Fulbright winner can stay in touch with overseas partners while at home. "While you aren't physically there, you can continue to be in very close contact," she says.

Read the full article at http://chronicle.com/article/Fulbright-Tries-Short-Term/135420

Also this week, the Chronicle of Higher Education published world maps showing the most popular destinations for and sources of Fulbright scholars: http://chronicle.com/article/The-International-Exchange-of/135380