In honor of International Education Week (November 18-22), the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest celebrates and reaffirms the longstanding relationship with Romania in the fields of education and culture. “Our two countries recognize the immense value of global learning, both through strong educational ties between the United States and Romania, and by facilitating students access to meaningful educational opportunities abroad,” says the US Embassy to Romania in a press release.
International Education Week, a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education, aims to promote the benefits of international education and exchange programs worldwide. This year’s theme, “Explore,” invites students, scholars, institutions, and others to explore international education opportunities that equip them with the skills and knowledge to succeed. Now in its 75th year, Open Doors, which reports findings on international students and U.S. study abroad programs, reports more than 1.12 million international students studied at U.S. colleges and universities in the 2023-2024 academic year, a record high. More than 900 Romanian students studied in the United States in the 2023-2024 academic year.
In Romania, the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest sponsors and facilitates a wide range of educational and cultural programs. The prestigious Fulbright Student Program for Romanian citizens provides awards for the first year of a master’s program or for one academic year of research in the United States. Since 1960, over 3,600 Romanians and Americans participated in Fulbright exchanges. Seventeen students from Romania have won the prestigious scholarship and are currently in the United States. The Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission manages the EducationUSA program, where Romanians can discover all the opportunities that a U.S. education can bring.
“International education is the foundation to building a more open society, fostering diversity and collaboration. By facilitating cultural, educational and professional exchanges and sharing common values, skills and expertise we can nurture new generations of leaders to tackle tomorrow’s challenges,” stated U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Kavalec.
Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX) provides scholarships for high school students from Europe and Eurasia to spend an academic year in the United States, living with a family and attending an American high school. Now in its 31st year worldwide, the FLEX program has provided scholarships to over 30,000 secondary school students. In Romania, the program was introduced in 2016. Since then, each year 30 high school students are selected to participate and spend an academic year in the United States.
The Benjamin Franklin Summer Fellowship is an intensive four-week academic fellowship hosted by a U.S. college or university for high school students between ages 16-18. These programs are academic in nature, and focus on global issues, in addition to leadership and community service.
Embassy Bucharest coordinates the largest American spaces network in Europe (second largest in the world) with 10 American Corners and 25 affiliated American shelves, which serve as information hubs on the United States and programs in support of U.S. foreign policy, including information on studying in the United States. Over 31,800 Romanians participated in 1,570 formal programs across the network in the academic year 2023-2024.
For information about these and all of U.S. Embassy Bucharest’s programs, please visit our website at https://ro.usembassy.gov/education-culture/.