FY 2018 Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (Global UGRAD Program) | ECA ECAAE 18 006

Opportunity Information: Apply for ECA ECAAE 18 006

The FY 2018 Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (Global UGRAD) grant opportunity is an open, competitive funding announcement from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), specifically through its Office of Academic Exchange Programs. The purpose of the award is to select one administering organization to cooperate with ECA in running the Global UGRAD Program, a well-established international undergraduate exchange that brings talented, underserved students from multiple world regions to the United States for a semester of academic study and related programming. The opportunity is categorized as a discretionary award and will be issued as a cooperative agreement, meaning the recipient should expect substantial involvement from ECA in key aspects of program direction, oversight, and implementation rather than operating fully independently.

The total funding available is listed as up to $5,600,000, contingent on the availability of FY 2018 appropriated funds. While the announcement emphasizes that final funding depends on congressional appropriations and agency availability, it also sets an operational expectation for scale: the funded program should support a minimum of 245 student participants. The announcement further signals that the implementing organization should prioritize efficiency and cost effectiveness so that the maximum possible number of scholarships can be awarded within the available budget. In practical terms, this frames the proposal around both quality and volume, encouraging applicants to design a model that can responsibly serve a large cohort while maintaining strong student support and compliance standards.

Programmatically, Global UGRAD provides scholarships for one semester of non-degree undergraduate study at U.S. institutions of higher education. The target population is described as outstanding underserved students, which typically implies students who have strong academic potential but limited access to educational opportunities due to financial, geographic, social, or institutional barriers in their home countries. Participants come from a wide range of regions: East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, the Near East, South and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Western Hemisphere. In addition to the core academic semester, the opportunity allows for some students to receive one additional semester of pre-academic English language training when needed, which indicates the administering organization must be prepared to assess English readiness, place students appropriately, and manage an extended program timeline and budget for a subset of participants.

Eligible applicants include public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, and nonprofit organizations that have 501(c)(3) status under IRS rules (with the nonprofit category explicitly including entities other than universities). A key eligibility restriction is experience-based: organizations with fewer than four years of experience conducting international exchange programs are not eligible. This requirement is meant to ensure the recipient has a proven capacity to handle complex international program administration, including recruitment and selection coordination, visa and compliance processes, placement and enrollment logistics, participant monitoring and support, financial management, safeguarding and risk management, and coordination with multiple stakeholders in the U.S. and abroad.

The opportunity is identified by Funding Opportunity Number ECA ECAAE 18 006 and is associated with CFDA number 19.009, which corresponds to academic exchange programming administered by ECA. The agency listed is the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The original posting date (creation date) is July 6, 2017, and the original application closing date is September 5, 2017. These dates place it in the lead time typically needed for an academic-year exchange cycle, where selection, placement, visa processing, and pre-departure preparation must occur well before students arrive on U.S. campuses.

Overall, this funding opportunity is designed to support the full operational lifecycle of a large-scale inbound scholarship exchange: selecting and placing international undergraduate students at U.S. colleges and universities for a non-degree semester, providing wraparound support services and programming, and, where appropriate, delivering or arranging pre-academic English language instruction before the academic term begins. The emphasis on underserved student populations, broad regional coverage, and maximizing the number of scholarships indicates that ECA is prioritizing both equity of access and program reach, while the cooperative agreement structure and experience requirements underscore the need for a highly capable administrator with established exchange-program infrastructure and strong compliance and participant-support systems.

• The Bureau Of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2018 Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (Global UGRAD Program)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.009.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-07-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-09-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $5,600,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Others.

Apply for ECA ECAAE 18 006

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