NAFSA at 75 YEARS

Originally named the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers, NAFSA was founded at the Conference on International Student Exchange at the University of Michigan in 1948. The same year, the U.S. government made significant investments in international education, first with the U.S. Education and Education Exchange Act, also known as the Smith-Mundt Act, followed by the Marshall Plan to rebuild postwar Western Europe. To keep up with the quickly evolving field, the organization published the first NAFSA Newsletter.

During the 1950s, NAFSA expanded its constituency to include English-language instructors, and in 1958 Congress passed the National Defense of Education Act, allocating more than a billion dollars to science education over the next 5 years.

The 1960s was a decade of tremendous growth in the field of international education. In 1961, the United States established the Peace Corps and Congress passed the Fulbright-Hays Act, which remains the legislative basis for federally funded educational and cultural exchange. NAFSA launched the Field Service Program in 1963, a government-funded initiative that successfully professionalized the field of international education and formalized NAFSA’s knowledge communities for more than 40 years. To reflect its wider scope, NAFSA became the National Association of Foreign Student Affairs.

In the late 1970s, the first cohort of students arrived from China, marking a turning point in U.S.-China relations; China now sends more students to study in the United States than any other country. At the time, the top spot was occupied by Iran, but in 1979, the Shah of Iran was deposed, stranding 51,000 Iranian students in the United States. In December, the President’s Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies released the Perkins report, which emphasized the importance of foreign language skills and prompted U.S. institutions to increase capacity for international students and research.

Growing Cold War tensions in the early part of the decade created a sense of urgency that affected international education and solidified NAFSA’s role as an adviser and advocate. On the regulatory front, NAFSA played a crucial role in Immigration and Naturalization Service reforms during the ‘80s and developed important provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. NAFSA also created standards for institutional policies and practices, as well as a code of ethics for international educators. To close out the decade, the first Member Interest Groups (MIGs) were created in 1989.

In 1990, to reflect the inclusion of study abroad and other areas of international education into its mission, the organization became NAFSA: Association of International Educators. The same year, NAFSA published the first issue of International Educator magazine and, a year later, launched the first version of its website. NAFSA produced its first Statement of Professional Competencies for International Educators, which defined the baseline of knowledge and skills for international educators, in 1996; it has been updated several times since. In 1998, NAFSAns gathered in Washington, D.C., to mark the association’s 50-year anniversary with the “Building Global Leadership for a New Century” conference. The end of the decade also brought NAFSA’s first call for a comprehensive international education policy in the United States.

In 2000, President Clinton signed a memorandum calling for a comprehensive international education policy, and the U.S. Departments of State and Education collaborated on the first International Education Week. A year later, the aftermath of September 11 sharpened the country’s focus on international expertise, prompting Congress to increase funding for Title VI and Fulbright-Hays—but also renewed scrutiny of international students in the country. In 2003, the U.S. government implemented the Student Exchange and Visitor Information (SEVIS). The early aughts saw the creation of the NAFSA Academy for International Education and the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization—two programs that became NAFSA permanent NAFSA fixtures. In 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the landmark Paul Simon Study Abroad Act to help make study abroad a more integral part of higher education—still a key legislative priority for NAFSA.

In 2015, following President Obama’s announcement of a renewed relationship with Cuba, NAFSA launched the Cuba Engagement Initiative to build partnerships between U.S. and Cuban institutions and called on Congress to permanently lift the travel ban and trade embargo. That same year, NAFSA membership hit the 10,000-member mark—a pivotal moment for the association and its identity. NAFSA also strengthened partnerships with national and regional international education organizations around the globe, specifically in the Global South. In 2017, President Trump signed an executive order banning entry to the United States by citizens of seven countries, causing confusion for international students and advisers. In response, NAFSA built coalitions, advocated to roll back and prevent policies and actions detrimental to international education, and frequently publish regulatory updates. The same year, NAFSA participated in the viral #YouAreWelcomeHere campaign to assure international students that U.S. campuses are “diverse, friendly, safe, and committed to student development.”

By March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact higher education institutions, reducing U.S. study abroad participation by 99 percent in the summer of 2020 and international enrollment in U.S. institutions by 46 percent in the fall. The following year, the U.S. Departments of State and Education released a joint statement of principles in support of international education. NAFSA hosted its first virtual annual conferences in May 2020 and 2021 before gathering in person for the NAFSA 2022 Annual Conference & Expo in Denver. The field began to see signs of recovery in 2022 in both study abroad and international student enrollment numbers.