Austrian-American Educational Commission/Fulbright Austria

Mission and History

The Austrian-American Educational Commission (AAEC) is a special binational commission based on the Fulbright Act of 1946 and established by a bilateral agreement between the US government and the Republic of Austria in 1950. It currently operates under the authority of the Fulbright-Hays Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (1963-present), which provides for binational financing and governance of the Austrian-American Fulbright Program.

Fulbright Austria promotes mutual understanding, cooperation, and knowledge transfer between Austria and the United States by sponsoring educational and cultural exchange programs serving individuals and institutions. It fulfills this mission by managing the prestigious Fulbright scholarship program; coordinating a nationwide teaching assistantship program unilaterally funded by the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) that places US college graduates in Austrian secondary schools; and counseling students and institutions of higher education on opportunities to study in the US or Austria as an EducationUSA advising center.

With over 380,000 alumni, the Fulbright Program was the largest exchange program in the world until the inception of the European Union Erasmus Program in the 1980s, and the Austrian-American Program is the largest bilateral exchange program between the two countries. More than 2,500 US citizens and 3,500 Austrian citizens have participated in exchanges under the auspices of the Fulbright Program since 1950. Furthermore, over 3,000 US college and university graduates have taught at Austrian secondary school in communities large and small in all nine Austrian provinces since the inception of the US Teaching Assistant Program in 1962.

For a brief history of the Fulbright Program, consult “Fulbright at Fifty” or view the documentary video “Fulbright at Sixty” on the Fulbright website.

Programs and Activities

Grant Category	2017-18	2018-19
Austrian Fulbright Foreign-Language Teaching Assistants at US colleges and universities	14	12
Austrian Fulbright Students enrolled in graduate programs at US institutions	10	14
Austrian Fulbright Scholars	4	6
US Fulbright Students enrolled at Austrian universities	18	21
US Fulbright Scholars (representing the fifth-largest US Fulbright Scholar cohort in the world)	22	22
Fulbright Specialists (two- to six-week stays)	5	5
Total Fulbright grantees	75	75
US teaching assistants at Austrian secondary schools (record highs)	133	144

Fulbright Austria also serves as an educational advising center for Austrians interested in studying in the United States and Americans interested in studying in Austria.