to sign an agreement with the United States under the Fulbright Act of 1946. Although China was the first to sign the agreement the first grantees began work in Burma, which was the second country to sign on in December 22, 1947. In the first year of the program 35 students and one professor came to the United States and 65 Americans were sent abroad. By the end of the forties Australia, Belgium, Luxemburg, Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Turkey and the UK all joined along the program and established Fulbright Commissions. In the early days of the program there was no shortage of funding. It is reported that over 250 pre-doctoral students went to France through the program in 1949, and that the grantees were allocated $200,000 per year in Burma in 1948.1950s earmarked the flow of agreements with several other countries from Europe, Asia and Latin America. The two defeated powers of the war, first Japan and then Germany, also joined the Fulbright program in the 1950s. As the number of countries joining the program increased, the remaining war surplus continued to decline. As a result, the Congress, which could pretend that the program cost nothing in the early days of its inception, had to start funding it in the fifties. In September 21, 1961, a new Fulbright-Hays Act was signed to consolidate all previous laws under which the U.S. exchange program operated. Even today the 1961 Act remains to be the basic charter for all educational and cultural exchange programs sponsored by the U.S. government. Although the program suffered significant funding cuts later in the sixties, it is reported that 81,811 scholars 28,610 Americans and 53,201 foreigners have benefited from the Fulbright Program from 1949 to 1966 (Coffin, 1966).At a ceremony in the 1960s, an Oxford Don told Senator Fulbright that he was responsible for the largest and most significant movement of scholars across the fac...
