Council on International Educational Exchange

The Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) is a non-profit organization promoting international education and exchange. It was founded in 1947 and is based in United States. The organization is headquartered in Portland, Maine.

CIEE operates over 175 study abroad programs in over 40 countries and teaching programs in Chile, China, Spain, and Thailand. Summer seminars in 29 countries are available. As the largest sponsor of J-1 visa programs, CIEE organizes seasonal work experiences in the United States for approximately 45,000 university students each year through its Work & Travel USA program. It also organizes high school exchange programs for students in the United States as well as more than 30 countries around the world.

CIEE also maintains a membership community, the CIEE Academic Consortium. Academic institutions join the consortium in order to affiliate with CIEE's mission, to support CIEE's advocacy efforts in Washington and other world capitals, and to have a policy voice in CIEE's educational programs and activities. As such, CIEE Members are part of a worldwide network of colleges and universities.

Among others, CIEE established the Council Study Centre at Vietnam National University, which receives about 50 students from various countries learning Vietnamese language and other sciences, and Study Center in Khon Kaen, Thailand.

In April 2016, CIEE and The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School for Education Center for Minority Serving Institutions announced a joint $100,000 scholarship and three-year partnership to increase study abroad opportunities for students of color.

One of the major goals after World War II was to develop international understanding and establish trust between nations. The development of student and teacher travel was considered the most effective tool to achieve that goal. As Senator J. William Fulbright said, “Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations” (Fulbright, 1994). In the United States, a number of organizations and religious groups became immediately interested in re-establishing various types of educational exchange programs that had been suspended in 1939 at the beginning of the war.

There was a strong political rationale for the U.S. government to support student travel abroad programs. Students were seen as “ambassadors” of their own country who would represent the best national interests of the American society abroad and promote international understanding. At the same time, development of student travel abroad for educational and cultural purposes preserved a strong academic interest resulting from broadening the horizons of the younger generation and educating them through exchanges for cross-cultural and international competence.

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