USIEF promotes mutual understanding between citizens of the United States and India. Its core activities include:
• Administration of Fulbright and other fellowships for Indian and American students, lecturers, researchers and professionals. Promotion of dialogue among Fulbrighters and their communities as an outgrowth of educational exchange.
• Serve as a resource for fostering linkages between higher education institutions in the U.S. and India through its office of U.S. – India Higher Education Cooperation (USIHEC).
• Educational Advising Services for Indian students interested in pursuing higher education in the U.S., and U.S. Ambassador and the Indian Foreign Secretary signed a historic new Fulbright agreement making India a full partner with the United States in the governance and funding of the Fulbright Program. The U.S.-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) awards Fulbright-Nehru scholarships under the agreement, which also permits private sector support for the program. The increase in exchanges under the agreement has allowed for the development of new and innovative programs, such as the Fulbright-Nehru English Teaching Assistant Program for American college graduates, the Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Program for Indian and American higher education professionals, the Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research Fellowships for Indian scholars and professionals who are in the early stages of their research careers, and the Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair for full professors with a prominent record of scholarly accomplishment. India now has the largest scholar Fulbright Program in the world. Since its inception in 1950, USIEF has awarded approximately 8,200 Fulbright grants funded by the U.S. Department of State in a full range of academic disciplines. USIEF has also administered 8,700 other awards, including the U.S. Department of Education’s Fulbright-Hays and the East-West Center grants, for a total of around 17,000 awards in the last 63 years. USIEF grants are for leadership development in three main sectors: (1) Research, both at the pre-doctoral and post-doctoral level, in wide-ranging disciplines significant to India and the United States; (2) Lecturing to promote mutual understanding in area studies (both U.S. and Indian Studies) as well as in areas of contemporary issues relevant to the United States and India; and (3) Professional development training in newly emerging areas of importance to India such as environmental studies and management. Office of U.S.-India Higher Education Cooperation (USIHEC)
USIEF, with the support of the U.S. Department of State, is working to further increase U.S.-India education cooperation through USIEF’s office of U.S. - India Higher Education Cooperation (HEC), a center for information exchange and facilitation of higher education collaboration and research partnerships. The office provides briefings to U.S. institutions visiting India and Indian institutions, administers grant programs including the Obama-Singh Initiative, and maintains a database of U.S. India higher education collaborations. EducationUSA at USIEF
EducationUSA@USIEF provides authentic, reliable, unbiased and up-to-date information on higher education opportunities in the U.S. through its four offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Individualized and group counseling, special workshops, university fairs, alumni fairs, digital video conferences, library reference materials, website postings, and updates on testing and other advising issues are all part of USIEF’s educational advising work. In view of a growing, technologically savvy globally-networked student community, USIEF has increased its use of information technology, including web chats and on-line advising for students, and video conferencing to interact with U.S. universities.
