IIE is now on Instagram, and our username is iieglobal.

Participants of IIE programs are encouraged to share their photos by posting on Instagram and tagging them with #iie or #iieglobal.

Namrata Jha, Director of the IIE’s New Delhi office, recently visited two girls’ schools in New Delhi as part of the needs assessment plan to launch a girls’ STEM program in Southern India. She shares in her latest post, "Our discussion helped us to better understand what inspires these girls, what they aspire to become, how they hope to fulfill their dreams, what is coming between them and their dreams ... "

A recent article in University World News features a program of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, which received the IIE 2014 Andrew Heiskell Award for Internationalizing the Campus. UW-Eau Claire's International Fellows Program sends students, in partnership with faculty and staff mentors, abroad for international learning experiences that range from three weeks to several months in duration. The program provides funding and has encouraged an increasing number of lower-income students to participate.

Facebook recently unveiled a plan to develop an educational app along with EdX that will make course materials from institutions like Harvard available to students in Rwanda. A recent post on Motherboard discusses the merits and controversy of Facebook’s effort to "set up shop" in developing countries via MOOCs and other educational initiatives.

Andres Oppenheimer recently reported in Dallas News that President Barack Obama with his counterparts from Mexico and Canada produced a plan at last Wednesday’s U.S.-Mexico summit to increase the number of Mexican students in U.S. colleges from the current 13,800 to 100,000 by 2018. The Mexican plan, known as "Proyecta 100,000," also "contemplates increasing the number of U.S. students going to Mexico from the current 4,100 to 50,000 between now and 2018," writes Oppenheimer.

IIE and the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO invite you to a policy briefing and discussion on the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2013/14 and its implications for U.S. domestic policy. 

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2013/14 was launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 27, 2014 with side events taking place in countries around the world. This year’s report provides a critical assessment of progress and challenges towards achieving the Education for All goals. It puts forward an analytical overview of the state of teaching and learning event with reference to achieving quality education for all. This is an issue of critical importance given increasing acknowledgement of the "learning crisis" in education and funding gap for basic education around the world.

The key lessons and findings from the report will be presented to frame the discussions. The moderator will pose questions, based on key themes or findings, to the discussants and other participants. At the end, the moderator will provide a summary and conclusions.

EducationUSA invites U.S. higher education representatives and advisers to participate in the EducationUSA Regional Forum for Europe and Eurasia. Join us for a unique opportunity for in-depth intensive networking, mutual learning, and training.

• Discover the prospects, benefits and cultural diversity that European and Eurasian students bring to U.S. campuses.
• Explore opportunities to build educational partnerships between the United States and European/Eurasian countries and foster two-way mobility.
• Identify strategies to increase Visibility and Access to U.S. higher education throughout Europe and Eurasia.
• Connect with 100 EducationUSA Advisers from 44 countries, from Reykjavik to Vladivostok.

Forum registration will open on March 3, 2014.

The Indigenous Biocultural Exchange Fund (IBEX), a project administered by IIE and supported by The Christensen Fund, provides financial assistance of up to $5,000 to an individual or organization to attend global biocultural events/exchanges or meetings of international significance which impacts the applicant’s home territory or region. This fund supports indigenous peoples and local communities to have a voice in the policies and forums that concern biocultural diversity at a global level.

Eligibility requirements:

• The applicant must be indigenous or a member of a local traditional community
• Additional preference will be given to: women, youth, and first time travelers
• Funding is not available for those applying to an academic program

For questions, please contact Vanessa Sayajon at IBEX@iie.org.

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers teaching, research or combination teaching/research awards in over 125 countries for the 2015-2016 academic year.  Opportunities are available for college and university faculty and administrators as well as for professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers, independent scholars and many others.  Highlights from nearly 600 awards offered in this year’s program include:

After a 10-year hiatus, the U.S. Scholar Fulbright program is reopening in Belize, the Bahamas, and Guyana.  The Bahamas has a strong academic community with a healthy appetite for new and cutting-edge research.  Applicants interested in a teaching or teaching/research grant to Belize will find themselves in high demand for their expertise in a country that abounds with natural wonders.  Guyana is eager to benefit from curriculum development, knowledge exchange and research collaboration. 

Visit the interactive map on the new Fulbright Scholar Program website for an overview of additional opportunities in:

• Sub-Saharan Africa
• East Asia and the Pacific
• Europe-Eurasia
• Middle East and North Africa
• South and Central Asia
• The Western Hemisphere

Interested faculty and professionals are encouraged to learn more about core Fulbright U.S. Scholar opportunities by visiting the online Catalog of Awards. The application deadline for most awards is August 1, 2014.  U.S. citizenship is required.  For other eligibility requirements and detailed award descriptions, please visit our website.

In conjunction with the Forum on Education Abroad Conference, IIE will hold workshops for student advisors. There is no cost to attend these workshops, and you do not need to be registered for the Forum in order to attend. During these sessions, program staff will summarize the goals of each program, review the application process, and provide tips on submitting competitive applications.

Sessions are scheduled as follows:

• 12:30–1:30 PM: Gilman Scholarships
• 1:45–2:45 PM: Boren Awards
• 3:00–4:00 PM: Fulbright U.S. Student Program
• 4:00–4:30 PM: Generation Study Abroad

To attend workshops, please RSVP by March 24, 2014.

If you are aware of other individuals from your campus that may like to attend, please forward this invitation. Point Loma Nazarene University will host the workshops and detailed information will be sent to confirmed attendees. Please contact boren@iie.org with any questions regarding the workshop.

The eBook version of A Student Guide to Study Abroad is available through several eBook vendors, including:

• Amazon for Kindle
• B&N for Nook
• iTunes for iPad or iPhone

A Student Guide to Study Abroad arms students with the critical information needed to make one of the most important decisions of their academic career. Stacie Berdan, co-author of the book, recently wrote an article in the Diplomatic Courier about the growing importance of study abroad as well as its transformation in recent years. "The ability to work across cultures is no longer a nice-to-have skill set for elite executives or diplomats; every year it becomes more essential to finding any job at all."

A recent study conducted at the Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria validates popular belief that studying abroad contributes substantially to personal and professional development. The report, according to a recent University World News article, found that students that study abroad "tend to look critically upon their own culture and find it easier to earn the trust of people from other cultures... These skills seem to pay off—literally—after about six to eight years into graduates’ careers, when their salaries tend to rise considerably above those who have not studied abroad."

The Kosciuszko Foundation, The American Center for Polish Culture, is offering students opportunities to study in Poland this summer at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. Programs are offered to undergraduate students and to anyone who has an interest in Poland. Students have the opportunity to earn credit while studying the language and attending courses on Polish history, literature, and contemporary Poland. Classes run from early July through the end of August. You can sign up for courses as short as two weeks or as long as eight.