Critics See Students Branded as Spies in Foreign-Study Program

New students in a federally funded foreign-study program will be required to commit to government defense or intelligence work after graduation, a condition that critics say threatens the program by branding the students as spies in training.

Since the summer of 1994, nearly 1,000 American college students have studied in foreign countries under scholarships or fellowships from the National Security Education Program.

Previously, recipients repaid the grants by taking jobs in the federal government or in education. But new language in a defense appropriations bill that became law last month requires recipients to agree to be “employed by the Defense Department or the intelligence community.”

“The new language threatens to identify undergraduate students as operatives of intelligence agencies,” said Thomas Farrell, vice president of the New York-based Institute of International Education.

The institute has administered the undergraduate scholarships but says it will quit the program if the new provision is not revised.

The program provides study opportunities in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Central America, areas outside the five Western European countries that historically host 75% of U.S. students studying abroad, according to the institute.

The program develops students’ language skills and imparts knowledge needed for future jobs as diplomats, engineers, computer scientists or in other positions related to foreign policy, national security and international business. The program is financed with earnings from a $75-million U.S. Treasury trust fund created with Defense Department money.