Pennsylvania State University is the nation’s top producer of Fulbright Scholars, with 12 of its faculty and researchers chosen to receive Fulbright awards for the 2023-2024 academic year. Georgetown University produced the most Fulbright Students of any university or college this year with 40.
The new numbers were released today by the U.S. Department of States’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Founded in 1946 though federal legislation proposed by United States Senator J. William Fulbright, the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program funds American scholars and professionals to go abroad to lecture or conduct research for up to a year. It’s the nation’s leading international educational exchange program.
Fulbright said he believed the mission of the program was “to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs and thereby increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship.”
The Fulbright Student Program provides grants to college graduates, graduate students, and early-career professionals in over 100 different fields of study to study, teach English, and conduct research overseas.
Over the last 75 years, the Fulbright Program has given more than 400,000 participants—chosen on the basis of academic merit and leadership qualities—the opportunity to travel abroad and exchange ideas with leaders of communities throughout the world.
Each year, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces the top-Fulbright-producing institutions for both the Fulbright Scholar and Fulbright Student Programs. The lists are published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The top doctoral universities for Fulbright Scholars were:
- Pennsylvania State University 12
- University of Florida 11
- University of Colorado at Boulder 10
- Florida International University 9
- University of Southern California 9
- Arizona State University 8
- Colorado State University 8
- Purdue University 8
- State University of New York at Albany 8
- University of South Florida 8
Among baccalaureate colleges, Middlebury College was the top producer with three scholars, followed by Bowdoin College, Hampden-Syney College, Reed College, Skidmore College and the University of North Carolina (Asheville) with two each.
For masters-level institutions, California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, Salem State University and Western Washington University each had four scholars, followed by Rollins College with three.
The top doctoral institutions for Fulbright Student awards were:
- Georgetown University 40
- Brown University 36
- Harvard University 36
- Northwestern University 30
- University of Pennsylvania 30
- Yale University 30
- Columbia University 28
- New York University 27
- University of Michigan at Ann Arbor 27
- Villanova University 27
Bowdoin College led the list of baccalaureate colleges for the most students receiving Fulbrights (23), followed by Oberlin College and Pomona College (16 each) and Carleton College and Washington and Lee University (14 each).
Among masters-level institutions, the University of North Georgia had the most Fulbright students (9), followed by City University of New York Hunter College and Saint Edward’s University (5 each) and the State University of New York at Geneseo, Loyola University (Maryland) and Rollins College (4 each).
Of the 170 institutions named as top producing schools, 12 were top producers of both Fulbright U.S. Students and U.S. Scholars: Arizona State University, Bowdoin College (Maine), the George Washington University (District of Columbia), Middlebury College (Vermont), North Carolina State University at Raleigh, Reed College (Oregon), Rollins College (Florida), School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Illinois), the University of Alabama, University of Maryland – College Park, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, and University of Southern California.
Lee Satterfield, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, commended the honorees in a news release, saying “Fulbright’s 2023-24 Top Producing Institutions represent the diversity of America’s higher education community. Dedicated administrators, faculty, and advisors support students and scholars to fulfill their potential and rise to address tomorrow’s global challenges through the Fulbright Program. We congratulate them, and all the Fulbrighters who are making a positive impact across the world.”