Institute of International Education

History[edit]

The institute was established in 1919 at the cessation of World War I. Nobel Peace Prize winners Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, Elihu Root, former secretary of state, and Stephen Duggan, Sr., professor of political science at the College of the City of New York (and IIE's first president) formed the Institute of International Education with the idea that educational exchange would incite understanding between nations.^[4]


IIE president Stephen Duggan influenced the U.S. government to create a new category of non-immigrant student visas, bypassing post-war quotas set by the Immigration Act of 1921. In the 1930s, IIE began expanding its activities beyond Europe, opening the first exchanges with the Soviet Union and Latin America. Edna Duge was director of the IIE's Latin America department in the 1940s. After World War II, the institute facilitated the establishment of what is now NAFSA and the CIEE. In the 1940s, IIE aided more than 4,000 U.S. students to study and work on reconstruction projects at European universities devastated by the war.^[4]


By the 1950s the number of foreign students to the United States nearly doubled. As a result, the institute formed a network of U.S. offices to serve the growing number of students under its administration. IIE began producing an annual statistical analysis of the foreign student population in the United States and named the study, Open Doors. In the 1960s, the institute opened overseas offices in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.^[4]


In 1979, the IIE joined the White House and USIA to develop the innovative Hubert H. Humphrey North-South Fellowships, which brings mid-career professionals in public service fields from developing countries and East Central Europe to the U.S. for a year of academic study and practical professional experience. The International Education Information Center opened at IIE's New York headquarters in the 1980s and new offices in Budapest and Hanoi were established in the 90s.^[4]


In 2008, IIE president Allan Goodman led the institute's first U.S. higher education delegation. Eleven delegates representing seven U.S. colleges and universities traveled to Southeast Asia to enhance and expand linkages with institutions in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. IIE has since led U.S. higher education delegations to countries such as Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, Myanmar, and Russia with the aim of expanding educational ties with the United States.^[4] In the 2010s, the institute established the IIE Centers of Excellence and launched the Emergency Student Fund (ESF). In 2011, IIE hosted the first in a series of conferences in Iraq designed to engage key stakeholders in advancing higher education discussions and development efforts in Iraq.^[4]


In 2012, IIE began administering the government of Brazil's Scientific Mobility Program, which provides scholarships to Brazilian undergraduate students primarily in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.^[4] IIE brought together delegates from 15 countries and the EU in Washington, DC, for the 2012 International Education Summit on the Occasion of the G8, to discuss national priorities and educational cooperation among nations.^[5]


In 2024, it was designated as an "undesirable organization" by the Russian authorities.^[6]