Search for Fulbright fellows from the East

KOLKATA: The Fulbright Fellowships (2005-06) for Eastern India were launched by the United States Educational Foundation in India (USEFI) on Friday.
Usefi officials said there was a conscious effort to get more scholars from this part of the country - especially the North-East.
There are 14 different programmes for students, researchers, lecturers and professionals.This time, there will be an all new programme called Fulbright Teacher Exchange Programme. School teachers teaching in classes IX-XII can apply for this scholarship.
Citing the popularity of US campuses to Indian students, executive director of the Fulbright programme Jane Schukoske said, "there are 75,000 Indian students in American campuses. The Fulbright programmes have been designed in such a way as to create a better understanding between US and Indian students."
In the past five years, 246 scholars had been selected, of which only 43 are from Eastern India. "This number should certainly increase. In the North-East, where the level of awareness is poor, we are conducting workshops so that we get more students," Schukoske added.
Over the same period 312 American scholars have come to this country, of which only 30 have come to the Eastern universities.
"Some universities like the NEHU in the North-East and MAHE in Sikkim have conveyed to us that they are interested in taking foreign students. This should help to increase the number of foreign students in this region," Schukoske added.
Highlighting the flexible nature of the Fulbright programmes, a former scholar, Niladri Chatterjee said, "these are short term programmes, which allows one to carry on with a degree programme at home while adding value to one''s research at a US campus! Moreover, it provides opportunities for cross cultural mixing helping Americans and Indians to understand each other better."
In 2001, 41 scholars were selected from eastern India, which grew up to 52 in 2002 and finally in 2003, 63 scholars went to the US.