WASHINGTON: The board overseeing the Fulbright programme, the prestigious exchanges between US and foreign scholars, quit on Wednesday, accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of political interference.

Members of the board, nominated by successive presidents, voiced alarm about “injecting politics and ideological mandates” into a long non-partisan programme.

“The current administration has usurped the authority of the board and denied Fulbright awards to a substantial number of individuals who were selected for the 2025-2026 academic year,” the board members said in a resignation statement posted online.

“The administration is also currently subjecting an additional 1,200 foreign Fulbright recipients to an unauthorised review process and could reject more,” it said. “We believe these actions not only contradict the statute but are antithetical to the Fulbright mission and the values, including free speech and academic freedom, that Congress specified in the statute.”

Named after late senator J. William Fulbright, the scholarship founded in 1946 was seen as a major source of US soft power by bringing leading scholars to US universities and sending Americans overseas. The programme awards more than 8,000 grants each year.

The Trump administration has waged war on US universities, which Vice President JD Vance described before taking office as “the enemy” due to their influence and the often left-leaning views in academia.

Trump has cut off billions of dollars in federal research funds for leading universities, over their purported lackluster response to anti-Semitism during protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

The Trump administration has also aggressively revoked visas for students, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio using an obscure law that allows him to remove foreigners deemed to go against US foreign policy interests.

Rubio recently suspended processing of visas for foreign students — who are a major source of revenue for US universities — so the State Department can ramp up screening of applicants’ social media postings.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2025