Fulbright Program Adviser
Newsletter

Fulbright in the South and Central Asia Regions

Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Programs in South Asia

Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) grants are now available in each of the South Asian countries with active Fulbright U.S. Student Programs: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

Critical Language Enchancement Awards

Candidates applying to South and Central Asia are highly encouraged to also apply for the Critical Language Enhancement Awards to study Azeri, Bangla/Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Pashto, Punjabi, Russian, Tajik/Farsi, Urdu, or Uzbek.  This is a particularly important benefit for applicants to this region because relatively few U.S. colleges and universities teach South and Central Asian languages.

Regional Trends

Application numbers to the South and Central Asia region have been holding steady over the past several program years.  The program in India received the largest number of applications in the region, totaling 179 for 2009, making India one of the top Fulbright application countries worldwide.

Unfortunately, many candidates who consider applying to South Asia overlook excellent possibilities available in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.  While India alone attracted 179, the rest of the South Asian programs received a total of only 99 applications for 2009.

Application numbers to Central Asia also remain low, with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic receiving eight each and Tajikistan receiving 12 applications for the 2009 competition.

While the number of applications has remained steady, the number of grants to South and Central Asia, particularly to India, has been increasing: 22 in 2008, 92 in 2009 and 100 grants are expected to be available for 2010.  This trend is expected to continue and further increases in the number of grants to the region are anticipated.

Given the unrest in some parts of South and Central Asia, applicants and advisers often ask if Fulbright Programs are still operating there.  The answer at the moment is that the South and Central Asia programs in Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan are all up and running.  Should this change, an announcement will appear on IIE's Fulbright U.S. Student Program website.  Prospective students are also highly encouraged to write to Fulbright Commissions, and to IIE for non-Commission countries, with their security related questions and concerns.  Lastly, Fulbright Program Advisers can contact their institutional counterparts who have assisted Fulbright alumni to the South and Central Asia region.

The program in Uzbekistan has also been closed for the past few years, but candidates can still submit applications in the event that circumstances allow for the program to resume in 2010.  There are no Fulbright U.S. Student Programs in Afghanistan, Bhutan, Pakistan, the Maldives, or Turkmenistan.

Frequently Asked Question About Using Online References and Foreign Language Reports (OREC)

Are ORECs required?

We strongly encourage students to submit these forms online, since inclusion of these documents in the online application will facilitate the processing and review of applications.  At several stages of the application review process, the online application is exclusively reviewed.  At these stages, the focus may be on the project design, but letters of reference can support various aspects of the research design and/or candidates’ potential for success with the Statement of Grant Purpose.  Therefore, if given the choice between a referee who will complete the reference online and one who will not, you may wish to advise the candidate to go with the former.

Will FPAs be able to find out if their students have registered referees and language evaluators for this feature?

Yes, using the Embark Application Manager, you as an FPA can determine which students are using the OREC system, see which students have registered and track the status of an individual OREC.  Detailed instructions on using this feature can be found in the Resources for FPA section of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program website.

Will FPAs be able to view the Reference or Language Report?

Once the OREC has been submitted electronically by the referee/evaluator, you as an FPA will be able to view the letter or form.  This can be done when the application is either In Progress or in Receive form.

Will applicants ever be able to view the completed/submitted OREC?

No, applicants cannot access these forms at any stage of the application process.

Once an OREC has been electronically submitted, can I as an FPA unsubmit it so that the referee can edit or change it?

You as an FPA and IIE cannot unsubmit an OREC.  If referees or evaluators have made an error or need to edit their submission, they may send a request directly to Embark Technical Services to unsubmit their reference.  However, this process should only be used selectively.  The unsubmit process can take several days, especially during the busy periods in October.  Referees or evaluators should be advised to proof their letters carefully before submitting the form.

If you wish to review letters of reference from faculty members on your campus and make suggestions and recommendations, you should inform faculty members before they submit the reference electronically.  Ask faculty to send you the letters in hard copy before submitting them.  If corrections are needed, you can return the letter to the referee with edits.  The referee can make the changes and then electronically submit the final copy.

If the form is submitted electronically, why do you need a hard copy?

The Fulbright Program requires both online and hard copy (i.e., printed version) submission of all application documents as we have several levels of review that may include either review online or of the hard copy application.

This year, only hard copies of these letters/forms will be used in the first stage of the review process.  However, in the second stage of the selection process, when recommended applications are reviewed by the host country, many Fulbright Commissions and embassies will only review the online application.  Therefore, the hard copies of the letters/forms should match the online version.

Can applicants submit more than three letters of reference?

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program/Embark Application Manager: Submitting ORECS

To review the OREC System:

1) Referees should complete and submit the Letters of Reference, the ETA Reference Form (9B) and the Foreign Language Evaluation (Form 8) for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program electronically.

2) Applicants should register referees/evaluators electronically on the online application.  We urge applicants to select referees who are willing to submit letters/forms electronically in addition to submitting the hard copy.  This facilitates the processing and review of applications.

3) When the referee/evaluator is registered by the applicant, the person will receive an email informing them that the applicant has requested that they complete the online form.  The following is a sample for this email.

Sample Email to Referees:

4) You may follow the status (i.e., Not Started, In Progress or Submitted) of ORECs for individual applicants.  See the following instructions.

5) An OREC cannot be unsubmitted by you or IIE.  If referees or evaluators have made an error or needs to edit their submission, they may send a request directly to the Embark Technical Services to unsubmit their reference.  However, this process should only be used selectively.  The unsubmit process can take several days, especially during the busy periods in October.  Referees or evaluators should be advised to carefully proof their letters before submitting the form.

If you wish to review letters of reference from faculty on your campus and make suggestions/ recommendations, you should inform faculty before they submit the reference electronically.  Ask faculty to send you the letters in hard copy before submitting them.  If corrections are needed, then you can return the letter to the referee with edits.  The referee can make changes and electronically submit the final copy.

6) PLEASE REMIND APPLICANTS: Only 3 Letters of Reference will be reviewed.  If applicants submit more, only the three names listed on Page 1 of the Application will be considered.

Using the Application Manager to View ORECS

You can use the Embark Application Manager to see if your students are using the OREC (Online Reference and Foreign Language Evaluation) system and to follow the status of these recommendations.  The following instructions are valid for both the In Progress and Receive screens.

Step 1 Select OREC View from the dropdown menu "Saved Views." Click on grey button "select view."

Step 2 Select Applicant by clicking on the number under "Recs Submitted."

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