Students and faculty brace after federal cuts to international education programs
Clarissa Rodriguez | @clarissa.rodriguez_
Students and faculty at the University of Kansas international centers are facing an uncertain future after the U.S. Department of Education announced last week it would eliminate funding for the National Resource Centers (NRC) and Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships.
In a letter sent Wednesday, the department said international education is “no longer in the national interest.”
Brent Metz, director of KU’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, said the decision was disappointing but not surprising.
“In the letter, it essentially said that international education is no longer in the national interest, and we obviously think it is,” Metz said. “We devote our career to this, and so it was disappointing but not shocking.”
The funding loss puts pressure on KU’s international programs, which relied heavily on NRC and FLAS support.
“We plan to award I think eight academic year flashes,” Metz said. “Now we can only offer one graduate award and one undergraduate, and that’s it for the rest of the year.”
Megan Greene, associate vice provost for international and global engagement, said the federal government benefits from having experts trained in language and regional studies.
“These programs have always been in the interest of the federal government,” Greene said. “It’s in the interest of the federal government to have a pipeline of language and area studies experts who can serve in virtually every government unit.”
Glenn Adams, a director for the African studies center, emphasized the need for U.S. engagement with Africa.
“The world is becoming more and more African, and it is a space that Americans don’t know very well,” Adams said. “They’re going to be at a serious disadvantage if they don’t have knowledge of the political dynamics and the economic situation.”
Vice Provost for International Affairs Charles Bankart called the decision personally devastating.
“It’s just devastating to see such an important program that has such rich historical bipartisan support just go away so quickly,” Bankart said. “The hope is in those networks and the degree to which we structure approaches in strategic ways and enable us to move forward and build that momentum.”
For now, KU officials and faculty say they are committed to finding new pathways to support international education even as federal backing disappears.
