Department of Education Awards to UCLA International Research Centers Hit $8.1 Million Over Next Three Years

Six International Institute units recognized as National Resource Centers of Excellence, win additional $3.8 million in Title VI funding on top of $4.3 in fellowship money announced in April.

Leslie Evans

The second stage of the triannual U.S. Department of Education Title VI awards was announced this week in Washington, and six of UCLA's foreign area reasearch centers were recognized as national centers of excellence, with awards totaling $3.8 million over the next three years. This complements the Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) language fellowships announced at the end of April, in which the same 6 UCLA centers were given $4.3 million. The total awards in all categories for the six UCLA centers will come to approximately $8.1 million over the next three years.

The second round, of center-building grants, is aimed at strengthening language teaching, library collections, research and training in international studies, and K-12 outreach in international studies. Awardees must demonstrate that their units exercise national influence in their area, judged by the size of their faculty, the scope of the courses offered in both modern languages and substantive classes on countries in their region of interest, outstanding library collections, and active community programs of outreach to K-12 teachers and students in their geographic area.

The once-every-three-year competition is open to either strong centers that qualify on their own merit as national resource centers of excellence, or to consortiums that pool their resources in a common set of programs. Four International Institute centers -- the James S. Coleman African Studies Center, the Europe and Eurasian Studies Center, the Latin American Center, and the Gustav E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies -- were recognized as full national resource centers in this year's Title VI awards. Two others, both part of the new Asia Institute, were funded as partners in consortiums: the East Asia program of the Asia Institute, which is in a consortium with the University of Southern California, and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, which is in a consortium with its counterpart at UC Berkeley.

The awards are for a definite amount for the first year, and the same budget is pledged to be submitted to Congress by the Department of Education for the following two years. The second and third year funding is sometimes subject to minor adjustment.

Following are the figures for the awards to UCLA in the current cycle (the two Asia Institute units that were funded, both part of consortiums, are grouped under the Asia Institute's heading):

Published: Thursday, June 12, 2003

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