176. Memorandum From the Chairman of the NSC Under Secretaries Committee (Irwin) to President Nixon1
SUBJECT
- Review on Foreign Students
As part of the study of “International Exchanges” sent to you on August 13, 1971, a separate review of foreign students was undertaken by the Inter-Agency Youth Committee (IAYC).2 This memorandum summarizes the IAYC report, previously forwarded, and describes action taken by the Under Secretaries Committee.
The IAYC study focused on (a) the significant increase in the number of foreign students in the U.S.—from 34,000 in 1955 to about 150,000 currently, (b) the fact that their U.S. education will assure many from less-developed countries of access to influential positions at home, and (c) the experience they receive here, especially as it affects their attitudes towards the U.S. and as it relates to the tasks they will undertake when they return home.
After reviewing this IAYC study and the basic study on “International Exchanges” which resulted in NSDM 143, the Under Secretaries Committee has taken the following steps:
1. Increased Attention and Resources
The Committee has decided that the presence here of large numbers of foreign students represents a foreign policy opportunity of sufficient magnitude to warrant increased attention and that such increased attention should focus particularly on the more than 90 percent who are not sponsored by the USG.
2. Policy Objectives
While there should be a continuing desire that foreign students meet their educational goals in the U.S., the Committee has agreed that the following objective should govern the design and administration of expanded USG programs for foreign students:
[Page 457]—That foreign students should obtain a balanced understanding of the U.S. with emphasis on how political, economic and social progress and the resolution of conflict are sought through popular participation and democratic means.
The Committee has also approved two other objectives, while recognizing that they would be somewhat more difficult to attain.
—That foreign students should develop in the U.S. lasting and useful contacts, both professional and social, that may over time strengthen the links between the U.S. and other nations in key social and political sectors.
—That foreign students should acquire an ability to identify and solve problems in their own societies.
3. Review of Resource Allocation
It has been decided that the new interagency subcommittee on international exchanges to be established in accordance with NSDM 143 will review the relative distribution of Government funds devoted to the seven percent of all foreign students who are USG-sponsored and to the remainder who are not so sponsored, and to consider possible changes in this distribution. The bulk of these funds is administered by the Department of State and the Agency for International Development.
4. Program Level
It has been decided that this new interagency subcommittee will make a recommendation on the specific level toward which the program undertaken by the Department of State for non-USG-sponsored foreign students should be expanded, taking into account the recommendations and options presented by the Inter-Agency Youth Committee.
5. Establishment of New Office
The Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has been requested to establish an Office to plan and direct approaches toward foreign students, with emphasis on those here under other than USG auspices, and to seek to staff and fund the new Office at a level that assures it the means to carry out innovative initiatives.
6. New Program Approaches
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has been requested to direct the new Office, in carrying out its responsibilities for expanded USG attention to foreign students, to be guided by the following approaches:
—The stimulation of a national awareness of foreign student requirements and the guiding of private programs so as to fulfill approved objectives.
[Page 458]—Particular attention to the limited number of universities where almost half the foreign students are congregated.
—A focus on carefully selected groups of foreign students of high potential.
—Encouragement of continued assistance to foreign students by state governments and private universities so that study opportunities are not limited to the well-to-do.
—The continuing need for adequate U.S. counseling and the orientation of foreign students before they come to the U.S.
Steps Being Taken
By law and by Executive Order, the Department of State is the major focal point within the Federal Government for programs involving foreign students. The Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is also the only Government agency expending funds on programs for the so-called “non-sponsored” students.
The Department of State fully recognizes the importance of these foreign students, and supports the IAYC recommendations for providing such students with increased Federal attention. The Department’s budget for non-USG-sponsored students has increased from $0.4 million in FY 1970 at the beginning of this Administration, to a current request to Congress for $1.5 million in FY 1973. In addition, the Department has requested in FY 1973 appropriations bills approval for new positions which could become available to support staffing increases.
As experience and opportunities warrant, and within an overall Departmental resource allocation system, the Department will be expanding this programming activity. At the same time, coordination efforts with other Governmental agencies will be enlarged, particularly under the international exchanges subcommittee of the Under Secretaries Committee, described in NSDM 143, as well as in the Inter-Agency Youth Committee.
- Source: National Archives, RG 306, Office of the Director, Office of Public Information, Records Relating to a Study of International Exchange Programs, 1970–1975, Entry A1–37, Box 1, 143—Youth Project. Secret. Weiss sent a copy of the memorandum to Rush, Kissinger, Helms, Moorer, Veneman, O’Donnell, David, Shakespeare, and Hannah under an October 12 memorandum. (Ibid.)↩
- See Document 141.↩