The Chronicle of Higher Education announced that Northwestern awarded 22 U.S. Fulbright Grants for the 2012-2013 academic year, making it the ninth-highest producer of awarded grants from universities in the country. According to a University press release, this is the eighth year in a row that Northwestern has been in the top 10. As a research university, Northwestern also tied in sixth place with Columbia and University of Texas at Austin. The press release also stated that there were originally 27 awards, but five were declined “for various reasons.”
“We owe our great success with the program to the talent of our undergraduate, graduate and professional school students and alums – as well as to the superb organizational skills of our Fulbright manager for the past six years, Steve Hill,” said Sara Anson Vaux, director of the Office of Fellowships. The Office of Fellowships handles Northwestern’s Fulbright applications.
The 22 Wildcat recipients of the Fulbright Grant, who hail from nearly every school (including The Graduate School, the Law School and Feinberg School of Medicine), will study in more than 17 countries on topics varying from teaching English to ecology.
Fulbright Grants are sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The State Department’s website states that approximately 8,000 grants are awarded annually for Fulbright scholars who operate in more than 155 countries around the globe.