History of Fulbright Program in Nepal

On June 9, 1961, Nepal and the United States of America signed the US-Nepal Bi-national Agreement to establish the Commission for Administering the US-Nepal Educational Exchanges (called the United States Educational Foundation in Nepal, also popularly abbreviated as USEF Nepal). However, beginning in 1952, almost a decade prior to the establishment of the USEF-Nepal, Nepali students had already started embarking on the journey to the United States for pursuing studies under the Fulbright Program. Mr. Ram Chandra Malhotra and Mr. Yog Prasad Upadhyaya became the first Fulbrighters from Nepal to visit the US.

Between 1952 and 1961, i.e., before the establishment of USEF Nepal, a total of nine Nepali students had gone to the US for study under the Fulbright program as shown in the following table:

First Nine Nepalese Fulbright Students Going to the USA Prior to 1961

Name	Field of Study	Year
Mr. Ram Chandra Malhotra	Public Administration	1952
Mr. Yog Prasad Upadhyaya	Public Administration	1952
Mr. Govinda Bhakta Joshi	Food Technology	1953
Ms. Vijaya Laxmi Koirala	International Affairs	1954
Dr. Puskar Nath Pant	Economics	1956
Mr. Prakash Bahadur KC	International Law	1957
Ms. Siddhiraj Laxmi Shah	Journalism	1959
Mr. Prem Prakash Shrestha	Industrial Engineering	1959
Mr. Satrughan Prasad Upadhyaya	Business Administration	1959

Source: FULBRIGHT (The Commission for Educational Exchange between the United States and Nepal: USEF/Nepal), 1961-2000: Building Mutual Understanding for Forty Years, p. 21.

Similarly, the first nine students who went to the US under the Fulbright program following the establishment of the USEF-Nepal in 1961 were as follows:

First Nepali Fulbright Students Going to the US after 1961

Name	Field of Study	Grant Year
Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani	Business Administration	1962
Mr. Hargovinda Singh Pradhan	Law	1962
Dr. Vishwa Shanker Shukla	Economics	1962
Mr. Damodar Upadhyaya	Mathematics	1962
Mr. Gyan Chandra Malhotra	Civil Engineering	1963
Dr. Bishnu Das Pradhan	Electrical Engineering	1963
Dr. Rajendra Man Rongong	Educational Psychology	1963
Mr. Mohammad Sharif	Sociology	1963
Dr. Kunjar Mani Sharma	Business Administration	1963

Source: ibid. p. 30

Exchange of lecturers/research scholars has remained an important part of the Fulbright program. The practice of Nepali lecturers/research scholars going to the USA began in 1964 whereas the US Fulbright professors (lecturers and researchers) started visiting Nepal in 1961/62. Similarly, US Fulbright student researchers started visiting Nepal in 1964/65. The details are presented below.

First Nine Nepalese Fulbright Lecturers/Research Scholars Going to the USA

Name	Field of Study	Grant Year
Dr. Bishnu Prasad Poudyal	Nepalese History	1964
Dr. Badri P. Shrestha	Economics	1964
Dr. Samba Dev Pande	Economics	1965
Mr. Shanker Raj Pathak	Economics	1965
Mr. Rishikesh Shah	Seminars and Training	1965
Mr. Rama Prasad Manandhar	South Asian History, Culture and Religion	1966
Mr. Surendra Bahadur Shrestha	Asian Culture	1967
Dr. Ram Prasad Rajbahak	Economics	1967
Mr. Lain Singh Bangdel	Art History and Civilization of Nepal	1968

Source: ibid. p. 30

First Nine American Fulbright Professors (Lecturers/Research Scholars) in Nepal

Name	Field of Study	Grant Year
Dr. Stella Kramrisch	Nepalese Art	1961-62
Dr. Cecil H. Miller	Philosophy	1962-63
Dr. Frank Macshane	English Literature	1962-63
Mr. Frederick T. Anderson	English	1962-63
Dr. Alvin J. Untracht	Art History	1963-64
Dr. Robert L. Fleming	Natural History of Nepal	1963-64
Dr. Horace B. Reed	Science Education	1964-65
Dr. Francis E. Dart	Anthropology	1965-66
Dr. Thomas J. Lardner	Mathematics	1965-66

Source: ibid. p. 37

First Nine American Fulbright Student Research Scholars in Nepal

Name	Field of Study	Grant Year
Ms. Helga M. Bendix	Nepalese History and Culture	1964-65
Mr. A. Peter Burleigh	Anthropology	1966-67
Mr. Terence R. Bech	Ethnomusicology	1967-68
Mr. Frederick H. Gaige	Modern History of Nepal	1967-68
Dr. David Rubin	Nepalese Literature	1972-73
Ms. Katherine Blair	Architecture	1972-73
Ms. Suzanne Gilbert	Anthropology	1972-73
Mr. Leonard Jwiling	Buddhist Philosophy	1974-75
Mr. Richard John	Buddhist Studies	1978-79

Source: ibid. p. 42

Acknowledgement: The history of Fulbright Program is compiled by Mr. Tula Raj Basyal.