New Developments:
Indonesia: An English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) Program has been set up to give U.S. applicants the chance to teach English in Indonesian schools.  No previous Indonesian language experience or teaching experience is required.
Malaysia: 2 Fulbright/V.J. Shankar Memorial Fellowships for graduating seniors are now available for applicants interested in immersing themselves in Malaysian culture.  No previous Malay language experience is required.
Mongolia: U.S. Student grant opportunities are now available to Mongolia for all fields of study.
 
East & Southeast Asia
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program now offers awards to 12 countries and regions throughout East and Southeast Asia including: China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. 
 
In spite of the wealth of cultures and histories in the region, application numbers for programs in the region remain comparatively low.  There were only 623 applications to East and Southeast Asia in the 2004 Fulbright competition, compared to 690 applications submitted for the UK alone (out of a total of 5,720 Fulbright applications).  However, the 623 applications does represent a regional high, and the numbers have increased by more than 40% since 2000.
 
Part of the reason why fewer American students apply for Fulbright awards to countries in East and Southeast Asia is due to the language requirements in countries like China and Japan.  However, this is only part of the story since Fulbright grants to Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand do not require applicants to possess language skills prior to their arrival in-country. 
 
The more important factor in the disproportionately low number of applications to Asia is the unfamiliarity that most Americans possess when it comes to the Far East.  Although the number of students choosing to study in Asia has improved in recent years, the number of American university-level students receiving credit for studying in Asia is still less than 7% of the total number studying abroad.  Asian languages are far less commonly taught in the U.S. when compared to more traditional Western European tongues, and this has, traditionally, meant fewer Fulbright opportunities for students whose schools did not offer Asian languages.  However, the recent proliferation of English Teaching Assistantship programs in Asia has gone a long way in counteracting this pattern.
 
English Teaching Assistantship Programs in Asia
The first English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) program in Asia was established in Korea in 1992 with 8 students, and in 2004 it will welcome 72 ETAís from around the U.S. to teach in Korean secondary schools and live with Korean families.  The ETAís attend a six-week orientation over the summer to give them survival Korean skills and to prepare them for work in the classroom.  The successful program in Korea has served as a model for the new programs in Taiwan and Indonesia.  2004 is the second year for the ETA program in Taiwan, and the Fulbright Commission there has already been able to increase the number of awards offered from 9 to 12.  The 2005 Fulbright competition will be the first year that students can apply for ETA awards to Indonesia, and 5 grants are expected to be awarded.
 
The ETA programs in Asia are able to draw applicants from a greater range of institutions in the U.S. since they do not require students to have a prior knowledge of the local language and do not require elaborate research or study projects.  This has resulted in a group of ETA grantees that represent greater ethnic and regional diversity when compared to the U.S. Student Fulbright Program in general.
 
Pacific Countries
Australia and New Zealand are the only countries in the Pacific region where U.S. Student Fulbright grants are available at this time.  Both programs are extremely competitive since English is the common language of both nations and since both possess advanced, westernized societies.  Australia and New Zealand each received a record number of applications in 2004, with 153 and 124, respectively.
 
 
Jonathan E. Akeley is the Program Manager at IIE for U.S. Students applying to the Asia-Pacific Region, and he can be reached at (212) 984-5487 or jakeley@iie.org.