The Board of Trustees of the Institute
of International Education

Gentlemen:

During the past scholastic year the Director of the Institute spent five months in Europe visiting its correspondents and conferring with educational officials and university authorities. It was a very strenuous journey. In that time he visited France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and England. As the Director of the Institute he was everywhere welcomed as a representative of American higher education. The only drawback to the overwhelming hospitality experienced was the fact that it consumed very much of his time and left him almost a derelict when he embarked for home.

He was invited in almost every country to lecture at the universities and did lecture at the universities of Berlin, Vienna and Budapest, at the School of International Relations at Geneva and at the Royal Institute of International Affairs at London. Upon the invitation of M. Luchaire, Director of the Institute of Intellectual Cooperation at Paris, he participated in a two-day conference, April 17-18, of the representatives of the various offices in the different countries which have to do with international educational relationships. The discussion concerning the work of our own Institute in New York was of real service in suggesting to representatives from other countries simplified methods of administrative procedure. The Director was also the substitute for Dr. Robert A. Millikan as the American representative on the League of Nations Commission on Intellectual Cooperation in Geneva during its week's session in July, 1928, Dr. Millikan being unable to be absent from the United States last summer. Upon returning to the United States, the Director reported to the American Committee on Intellectual Cooperation the conclusions adopted by the plenary conference at Geneva which included the plan submitted by Mme. Curie for a more numerous exchange of advanced scientific research students and the plans approved by Professor Gilbert Murray for an exchange of secondary school teachers. The American Committee is now considering the best ways of realizing these plans. Upon the invitation of the Committee in Prague in charge of the unveiling of the heroic statue to Woodrow Wilson on the Fourth of July, the Director delivered the address in English. During his journey he had the opportunity to confer not only with educators and university authorities but with some of the most representative public men such as President Mazaryk, Signor Mussolini, Regent Horthy, Chancellor Seipel, Lord Robert Cecil and officials at the Secretariat of the League of Nations. The experience has confirmed the belief that he has already presented to the Board that more can be accomplished for the advancement of the cause of international cooperation and good-will by personal contact than by almost any other method.

Since his return the Director has used the Monthly Bulletin as the vehicle to express very briefly his views of the educational situation in the different countries visited, devoting one number to each country. That these articles have stimulated discussion on the subjects considered is evidenced by the letters received from teachers in our own institutions making inquiries on many of the topics discussed. In this Annual Report, he does not wish to repeat those views, but would like, however, to draw to the attention of the Board some aspects of the educational situation in Europe which will be of particular interest to Americans:

It is amazing to what an extent practically every country in Europe, in fact in the world, is relying upon the education of the masses of its people for national regeneration and progress. That is an old story in the United States, but one has only to go back to pre-War days to be aware of the extent to which illiteracy existed in many European countries and was deliberately allowed to exist in some. But today, the autocracies and oligarchies as well as the democracies are devoting all possible energies to this end. Fascist Italy, Bolshevik Russia, Nationalist Turkey and Revolutionary China are one with nations having older established governments like Great Britain, Germany and Hungary in regarding education as the means of salvation for their people. And it is not the education of their children only that is receiving attention but almost everywhere adult education is also emphasized. Night schools, not only in cities, but in rural districts are providing the rudiments of education to peasants and workers whose education had been neglected in their youth. Illiteracy will not disappear in Europe at once but it is today unquestionably in process of extinction.

The second aspect of international education that impresses the thoughtful visitor to Europe is the influence of American ideas in organization and administration. In Continental Europe before the War the dormitory system of student residence was practically unknown. A student boarded out in private families or pensions or lived where and as he could. Last spring the Director visited in Prague, Munich and in other cities some of the finest hostels for students that have been erected in recent years, and the dormitory movement is spreading rapidly. The whole plan which underlies the Cité Universitaire in Paris is based on the scheme of American dormitory life. It is justifiable to mention here the enthusiasm that greeted the news of Mr. Rockefeller's gift for a central house at the Cité Universitaire in Paris. In Geneva, Berlin and London the hope was tactfully expressed that the idea of International House in New York which has already been extended to Chicago and Berkeley might be realized in those centres also where so many foreign students congregate.

Another way in which American educational ideas are having an influence in Europe is the gradual loosening of the rigidity that has formerly characterized university administration. This is particularly true with reference to the spread of summer sessions. It would take too much space to enumerate the summer sessions that have been established in Europe, since the War. Practically no country has failed to be influenced. The Institute is the direct representative in the United States of practically all these summer sessions. That brings to it a large amount of work but has excellent results. In some instances the summer sessions have been deliberately modeled upon those of the American institutions with reference to the length of sessions, supervision, assigned readings, etc., so that American students who attend them might receive credit in their home institutions for work done at the foreign universities. The Director looks upon this tendency as of questionable value because he considers the method of obtaining an American bachelor's degree by the accumulation of "credits" as one of the bad features of our educational system. But one can readily understand the attitude of the foreign institutions.

The movement in favor of the Junior Year Abroad described in the Seventh Annual Report and which has been realized with such remarkable results at the Sorbonne in the Cours de Civilisation Française has aroused great interest in other countries having languages of international significance. As the result of discussions with the German authorities, an organization of courses similar to that at the Sorbonne will be established at one of the German universities in the fall of 1930. This will give opportunity to American Juniors to become as familiar with German culture and civilization as the courses at the Sorbonne enable them to become steeped in French culture. The plan was discussed by the Director with the Spanish and Italian educational authorities also but in all probability its realization in those countries will be deferred for some years.

During the past year the Director accepted invitations to make addresses at the annual conferences respectively of the Association of American Universities, the Association of American Colleges, and the American Association of University Professors. He also accepted an invitation to address the faculty of Rutgers University on the English Provincial University, to speak to the Seminar in the course on International Relations at Yale University and to make the Phi Beta Kappa address at Brown University. In fact, were he to accept all the invitations he receives to speak on international relations and international education, he would be able to spend but very little time at the Institute. These facts are mentioned merely to indicate the respect in which the Institute is held, for such invitations are naturally extended to the Director of the Institute, not to a personality.

The Institute was able to offer to our institutions of higher education during the year 1928-1929 a splendid group of distinguished scholars as lecturers in the various fields of learning. The following is the list of those who were circuited. The Director is glad to report that the Institute has received letters of commendation concerning all of them from the institutions at which they lectured.

CARL BRINKMAN. Germany. Professor of Political Economy at the University of Heidelberg.

MINNA G. COWAN. Scotland. Chairman of the Higher Education Committee of Edinburgh.

AMERICO CASTRO. Spain. Professor of the History of the Spanish Language at the University of Madrid.

ANDRÉ CHEVRILLON. France. Member of the French Academy, former Professor of Literature at the University of Lille.

JIRI V. DANES. Czechoslovakia. Professor of General Geography of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Charles University, Prague.

PAUL L. DENGLER. Austria. Director, Austro-American Institute of Education at Vienna.

FERNANDO DE LOS Rios. Spain. Professor of Philosophy, University of Granada.

AUGUSTE V. DESCLOS. France. Assistant Director of the Office National des Universités et Écoles Françaises.

CORA B. S. HODSON. England. Secretary of the Eugenics Society of England and of the International Federation of Eugenics Organizations.

GEORGE KARTZKE. Germany. Assistant Director, Deutsches Institut für Ausländer an der Universität Berlin.

CORNELIUS LELY. Holland. President-Curator of the Delft University; President of the Zuiderzee Board since 1919.

D. PLOOIJ. Holland. Professor of New Testament, Amsterdam University.

PIERRE S. POROHOVSHIKOV. Russia. Formerly Professor of Law, University of Moscow.

GAETANO SALVEMINI. Italy. Formerly Professor of Mediaeval and Modern History, University of Florence.

WILLIAM E. SOOTHILL. England. Professor of Chinese at Oxford University.

THOMAS F. TOUT. England. Professor of History, University of Manchester.

C. BARCIA TRELLES. Spain. Former Professor of International Law, Universities of Murcia and Valladolid.

OTAKAR VOCADLO. Czechoslovakia. Reader in Czechoslovak Language and Literature, School of Slavonic Studies, University of London.

DORA WAGNER. Germany. Studienrat at the State High School for Girls in Dresden.

ALBAN G. WIDGERY. England. Stanton Lecturer on Philosophy of Religion, University of Cambridge.

The Director regrets to inform the Board that Professor Jiri V. Danes of Prague, one of the most distinguished authorities on Geography in Europe was run down and killed by an automobile in Los Angeles on April 12, 1928. The Institute officials did everything in their power to be of service to Mrs. Danes on her return to Prague with the body of Professor Danes.

The lecturers who are circuited by the Institute form but a very small part of the many visitors from abroad who come for purposes of educational observation and investigation. A large part of the work of the Institute staff is given to arranging itineraries for such visitors and providing them with the letters of introduction which will secure for them the assistance necessary to enable them best to realize the object of their visits. It would take too much space to enumerate all these visitors but the following are a few of special significance for our work.

VISCOUNT DE CASA AGUILAR, personal representative of the King of Spain, visiting the United States to study educational architecture.

THE DUTCHESS OF ATHOLL, Parliamentary Secretary for Education of Great Britain, to study experimental methods in American schools.

LA MARQUISE D'ARMAILLE, on a mission sponsored by the French Ministry of Agriculture to study the organization and administration of schools of agriculture and landscape architecture for women.

DR. GEORGE BELTRAMI, Professor at the École de Médicine at Marseille on a mission for the Ministry of Public Instruction of France, to study medical education in the United States.

DR. DELGADO CARVALHO, Professor of Sociology at Rio Janeiro. Dr. Carvalho came to the United States to organize an exchange of students between Brazil and the United States.

MRS. BEATRICE ENSOR, Chairman of the International Council of The New Education Fellowship, to study developments in progressive education.

DR. WILHELM GERLOFF, Formerly rector of the University of Frankfort, to study the teaching of economics and finance in our universities.

DR. W. H. HEMER of South Africa, holder of a Carnegie travel fellowship, to study American industrial methods and schools of business.

MR. ALAIN PETIT, an Albert Kahn fellow from England, to study legal and social education in this country.

PROFESSOR N. N. ROUBTZOFF of the Technical College of Moscow, to study the practice in the layout of machines and mechanical equipment of plants, and the practice work performed by students in summer vacations.

DR. LUDWIG SCHMIEDER, official architect of the State of Baden, sent by his government to study university buildings in the United States.

One of the most gratifying features of the work of the Institute consists in the numerous letters of thanks it receives from the many visitors whom it has been able to serve in this way.

A conservative estimate places the number of students from foreign lands studying during the past year in institutions of high education in the United States at not less than ten thousand. In all probability there are several thousand others pursuing preparatory courses in the secondary schools and other schools lower than college grade, which it is estimated would swell the total to approximately fifteen thousand. This large army of earnest young men and women studying in a foreign land represents what is perhaps the greatest student migration in the history of the world. Even in the last decade of the Nineteenth Century when Germany occupied such a pre-eminent place among nations in its attractiveness for the foreign student the number studying at German universities and other institutions of higher education never approached that figure. Nor did the migrations to France in the postwar years ever exceed more than seven or eight thousand foreign students.

One of the most significant features of this international exchange of students is the number of fellowships involved. With the exception of the Rhodes Scholarships, established a quarter century ago by Cecil Rhodes as an agency for bringing the United States and the British dominions into more intimate cultural relations with England and particularly with Oxford, and the American Scandinavian Foundation Fellowships, established in 1911 "to cultivate closer relations between the Scandinavian countries and the United States", international fellowships as such hardly existed before the War. Today the mere enumeration of the opportunities fills a stout book. The promotion of world friendship and understanding by this means is engaging the earnest attention and the best efforts of many far-sighted individuals, foundations, colleges, and other institutions. Probably no organization has been more active in this particular matter than the Institute of International Education. With no funds at its disposal to establish fellowships itself, it administers today two hundred and eleven international fellowships to enable 104 carefully selected American college graduates to study at European universities and 107 equally carefully selected foreign graduates to study at American colleges and universities. This splendid activity has been made possible by the generosity of some 60 American institutions whose names are appended. They have been willing to give free tuition, board, and lodging to the students from Europe and in exchange the American students have received the same advantages in Europe.

The countries with which the Institute maintains student exchanges upon fellowships are Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland. It is the aim of the Institute to extend this activity if possible to other countries which have not already organized it with some other agency. In its international student exchange activities the Institute is represented abroad by the Austro-American Institute of Education in Vienna for Austria; by the Czechoslovak Ministry of Education in Prague for Czechoslovakia; by the Office National des Universités et Écoles Françaises in Paris for France; by the Akademischer Austauschdienst in Berlin for Germany; by the Hungarian Ministry of Education in Budapest for Hungary; by Dr. Piero Parmi, Direttore Generale delle Scuole Italiane all'Estero for Italy, and by the Schweizerischer Schulratspräsident and a committee composed of the rectors of the Swiss universities for Switzerland.

More than sixty representative American colleges and universities are cooperating in this international student exchange movement. Among those which are entertaining these foreign fellowship students are:

Some of the fellowships at the disposal of the Institute are not of an exchange nature. The twelve American Field Service fellowships, which are among the most valuable, are for advanced study at French universities. They were founded by a group of Americans as memorials to the American ambulance drivers in the French service who fell during the War previous to the entrance of the United States in the War. Another most valuable fellowship was entrusted last year to the Institute by the Germanistic Society of America to enable an American student to study some aspect of German civilization at a German university. After a keen competition a fine young American scholar, an instructor in the German language and literature at one of the mid-western universities, was selected and is now studying at the University of Berlin. Still another valuable fellowship devoid of exchange connotation which is administered by the Institute is the Willard Straight Fellowship. This was founded in memory of the late Willard Straight to enable an American student to spend a period of three years in the study of Chinese civilization in China.

While the Director was abroad during the past year he was entertained in Berlin by the Carl Schurz Vereinigung. At dinner of the organization the proposal was made by the Vereinigung that ten American college and university students be invited annually to spend two months traveling through Germany during July and August provided the Institute would select representative men and women to participate in this effort "to promote and deepen the personal and cultural relations between the two countries." The ten students, five men and five women, representing various sections of the country as well as various academic and professional interests, were selected. The reports they made of their experience indicate that they enjoyed a delightful visit through Germany as the guests of the Carl Schurz Vereinigung.

For the past five years the French Ministry of Public Instruction has offered to American men through the Institute of International Education ten teaching positions in French lycées and écoles normales, known as "postes d'Assistant d'Anglais" in the former, or as "postes de Répétiteur d'Anglais" in the latter. In return for board and lodging at a lycée the American gives two hours of instruction in oral English. The lycée is always situated in a university town where the American teacher may pursue his studies. The activity has been successfully administered and is of mutual advantage.

As a means of enhancing and spreading the Junior Year Abroad idea and also of providing the opportunity for American undergraduates to spend the Junior year abroad studying at some foreign university, the Institute also administers a series of undergraduate scholarships under which this year twenty-five Americans are studying in France, two in Germany, and two in England. Last year one of these scholarship holders studied in Madrid and another at St. Andrews in Scotland. It can be anticipated that there will be an extension of the fellowship to other countries in the years to come.

An orientation program and conference for the benefit of the foreign exchange students who came to the United States this fall was held under the auspices of the Institute from September 12 to 18 in a large vacation house located on an eighty-five acre estate at Sandy Hook, Connecticut. The meeting was attended by some sixty students, representing seven foreign countries, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Norway. During the week, the students were addressed on a variety of topics by a number of well known educators, both American and foreign. The social program of the week was a varied one and gave much pleasure to the foreign students. The purpose of the camp was to employ to advantage the time elapsing between the arrival of the foreign students and the opening of the colleges in helping the students to become acquainted with each other and with American ways, and in the discussion of student problems.

During the year the Institute published and distributed Professor Wenley's report as Director of the American University Union in London in the previous year. It is a splendid exposition of the meaning of the British academic degrees, of the difference between them and the American degrees, and of the wisdom of American students studying for British degrees. The same booklet contains the report of Professor Gary Calkins who was the Director of the Union at Paris. It is a penetrating criticism of methods of scientific instruction in French universities. The Institute also published a booklet containing the names of Russian expatriated professors and their special fields of scholarship who are available for teaching positions in American institutions. The booklet has been of service in securing places for several of them. During the past year the Monthly Bulletin of the Institute which is distributed among the colleges and universities has been much enlarged, enabling the presentation of many more items of interest in international education.

The above is a brief account of the major activities of the Institute. Mention might be made of the several thousand individuals who have visited the Institute during the past year to secure information and advice on a wide variety of subjects and of the enormous correspondence exchanged with people all over the world with the same objects in view. Mention might also be made of the many conferences to discuss specific problems to which the Director has been invited by a great variety of organizations in the United States having international relations. But perhaps sufficient has been outlined to cause the trustees of the Institute to share the pride of the Director in the accomplishment of the past year. He is not unaware, however, of much that might have been accomplished and certainly not unaware of the great amount that remains to be accomplished.

New York, December 31, 1928

(An attempt has been made by the Institute in compiling these figures to include only bona fide foreign students; viz those students who have come to the United States from other countries for the express purpose of pursuing courses in our institutions of higher education and excluding the large number of students of foreign birth who are citizens or residents of this country.)

Following is a complete list of those published. Those marked with an asterisk are out of print. All others are available for free distribution. The nominal charge Indicated after each bulletin is intended to cover the cost of packing and mailing.

1919

*Announcement of Founding of Institute.

1920

Bulletin No. 1. First Annual Report of the Director. 10 cents.

*Bulletin No. 2. For Administrative Authorities of Universities and Colleges.

*Bulletin No. 3. Observations on Higher Education in Europe.

*Opportunities for Higher Education in France.

*Opportunities for Graduate Study in the British Isles.

1921

Bulletin No. 1. Second Annual Report of the Director. 10 cents.

Bulletin No. 2. Opportunities for Higher Education in Italy. 10 cents.

*Bulletin No. 3. Serials of an International Character. (Tentative List for Libraries.)

*Bulletin No. 4. Educational Facilities in the United States for South African Students.

*Bulletin No. 5. Guide Book for Foreign Students in the United States.

1922

Bulletin No. 1. Third Annual Report of the Director. 10 cents.

*Bulletin No. 2. Notes and News on International Educational Affairs.

Bulletin No. 3. A Bibliography on the United States for Foreign Students. 10 cents.

Bulletin No. 4. A Report on Education in China. 10 cents

1923

Bulletin No. 1. Fourth Annual Report of the Director. 10 cents.

Bulletin No. 2. Guide Book for American Students in the British Isles. 25 cents.

*Bulletin No. 3. Notes and News on International Educational Affairs.

*Bulletin No. 4. Fellowships and Scholarships offered to American Students for Study in Foreign Countries and to Foreign Students for Study in the United States.

Bulletin No. 5. Guide Book for Russian Students in the United States (in Russian). 10 cents.

*Bulletin No. 6. Guide Book for Foreign Students in the United States (Second Edition).

1924

Bulletin No. 1. Fifth Annual Report of the Director (The Problem of Fellowships for Foreign Students in American Universities and Fellowships for American Students in Foreign Universities). 10 cents.

Bulletin No. 2. Hints to American Students Going to France for Study or Research. 10 cents.

1925

Bulletin No. 1. Fellowships and Scholarships Open to American Students for Study in Foreign Countries. 25 cents.

Bulletin No. 2. Fellowships and Scholarships Open to Foreign Students for Study in the United States. 25 cents.

Bulletin No. 3. Sixth Annual Report of the Director (Observations Concerning Foreign Centres of International Education). 10 cents.

1926

Bulletin No. 1. Handbook for American Students in France. 25 cents.

Bulletin No. 2. Seventh Annual Report of the Director (The Junior Year Abroad, Student Third Class, Summer Schools Abroad, Institute Activities). 10 cents.

1927

Bulletin No. 1. Guide Book for Foreign Students in the United States (in Spanish). 10 cents.

Bulletin No. 2. Guide Book for Foreign Students in the United States (Second Edition, Revised). 25 cents.

Bulletin No. 3. The American University Union in Europe. (British Academic Degrees, France and Modern Science). 10 cents.

Bulletin No. 4. Eighth Annual Report of the Director (American Education in "Backward" Countries, The Expatriated Russian Professor, Unification of Activities in International Education, Institute Activities). 10 cents.

1928

Bulletin No. 1. The Institute of International Education---Its Origin, Organization and Activities.

Bulletin No. 2. Orientation Conference of Foreign Students. (The Psychology of the American). 10 cents.

Bulletin No. 3. Ninth Annual Report of the Director (American Influence on European Education, Institute Activities). 10 cents.