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GRADUATE STUDENT/ POSTDOCTORAL INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE 191 



the NATO Science Committee in order to highlight trends, benefits, 

 and needs. We shall examine the international aspects of graduate and 

 postdoctoral fellowship developments as well as short-term tutorial 

 schemes and collaborative research activities involving young scien- 

 tists. This will be followed by some general considerations on interna- 

 tional mobility of young scientists and engineers. The emphasis here, 

 as in preceding decades, will be on the person-to-person contact estab- 

 lished in the researcher's early years. The enduring relationships de- 

 veloped by researchers in their early years, moreover, provide the 

 basis for effective participation in all other modes of fruitful 

 international science and technology cooperation during ensuing 

 years. 



FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMS 



NSF Graduate Fellowships 



One of the first major programs implemented by the newly estab- 

 lished NSF in 1952 was the graduate fellowship program for predoc- 

 toral-level science students. This program experienced a range of pres- 

 sures in the ensuing 30 years, but has consistently provided some 

 450-550 new awards each year. A near doubling of these awards (in- 

 cluding renewals) was experienced during the 1960-1970 period under 

 the influence of the post-Sputnik increase in foundation budgets. 

 Thus, total annual awards, including continuation awards, grew to 

 the 2,500 level by the year 1970, tapering off to the current 1,400 level. 



From the beginning, a small number of NSF graduate fellows chose 

 quite readily to study in centers of excellence abroad, mainly in the 

 United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Canada. Figure 1 and Table 1 

 show that there were from 20 to 50 such fellows per year in foreign 

 institutions throughout the first 20 years of the graduate fellowship 

 program, or from 1.5 percent to 5 percent of all fellows. Data from 

 NSF Annual Reports present an unexplained aberration in 1956 with 

 95 (8.4 percent) of fellows going to foreign institutions. The numbers 

 of fellows attending foreign institutions fell off significantly beginning 

 in 1974 to a large extent because of the discouraging restrictive rule 

 requiring special justification for tenure in foreign institutions — a re- 

 striction brought on by Congress's concern, at the time, with a weak- 

 ening dollar and gold outflow. Then, in 1981, this fellowship pro- 

 gram, as well as all science education activities of the foundation, was 

 doomed to cancellation through the policy of the administration at 

 that time. The graduate fellowship program was, however, main- 

 tained through the concern of the Congress. At the same time, other 



