AAU urges Congress to provide $161.1 million for Title VI International Education programs in FY23.
The Department of Education’s Title VI (domestic) and Fulbright-Hays (overseas) programs are the federal government’s most comprehensive programs for developing national capacity in foreign language and area studies expertise. These programs support instruction in less-commonly-taught languages—particularly from regions in which the United States has a strategic interest—and research on cultural issues important to economic and national security. These programs educate individuals whose skills help ensure the successful international engagement of the U.S. education, government, and business sectors.
Title VI National Resource Centers (NRC) and Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships provide students from around the country with world-class opportunities for intensive study of foreign cultures and languages, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Fulbright-Hays programs provide funding to current and prospective U.S. educators to participate in advanced study and research overseas.
Due to budget reductions in FY11 these programs sustained a 43% reduction that has not kept pace with inflation. Increased investments in Title VI would help meet growing national security demands for foreign language and area studies experts by supporting new centers (NRC, CIBER), making Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship stipends equal to NSF graduate fellowship stipends, and increasing the number of FLAS fellowships.
Restoring Title VI to its historic level of funding is vital to ensuring its programs continue to contribute effectively to our nation's long-term security, global leadership, and economic competitiveness.
The NRC and other Title VI programs have created an unrivaled technical training system producing linguistically proficient, area-savvy graduates who go on to successful careers in government, military, academia, and business. These graduates educate thousands of students, teachers, policymakers, military and diplomatic officials, faculty, and the public, and engage in diplomatic missions in areas of strategic importance around the world. Restoring Title VI to its historic level of funding is vital to ensuring its programs continue to contribute effectively to our national security, global leadership, and economic competitiveness.