Our History

Protecting threatened and displaced scholars and students has always been at the core of IIE’s mission. From the Bolshevik Revolution to the Hungarian Uprising, IIE has demonstrated a commitment to defending the right to freedom of thought and the pursuit of knowledge. In 2002, IIE’s trustees committed to making scholar rescue a permanent part of the Institute’s work and Dr. Henry Jarecki, Dr. Henry Kaufman, and Mr. Thomas Russo founded IIE-SRF. With IIE now in its second century of assisting scholars in need, it remains dedicated to empowering threatened scholars from any country or field to continue their careers and to preserving national academies threatened by conflict.

Below is an overview of IIE’s long-standing commitment to protecting academic freedom work to date in support of scholars and students in need.

Major activities undertaken throughout the Institute’s history include:

Rescue of Scholars Displaced by the Bolshevik Revolution, 1920-1949

The Institute’s work to safeguard the lives and careers of threatened academics began more than 100 years ago. The Russian Student and Scholar Fund helped over 600 students and scholars caught in the crossfire of the Bolshevik Revolution and Stalinism to reach safety in Europe and the United States.

IIE published a directory identifying over 200 scholars still in Russia along with their fields of expertise in order to assist them in finding teaching positions abroad that would remove them from danger. This program continued for decades, helping many to teach and research freely beyond the reach of government and security forces of the USSR.

Rescue of Scholars from Fascist Italy, 1922-1924

The rise of Mussolini and the National Fascist Party in Italy resulted in the widespread displacement of scholars. The Institute relocated many of these Italian scholars to the United States, where they were afforded grants, and several were named chairs at leading universities.

IIE’s Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars, 1933-1945

IIE’s Emergency Committee assisted scholars who were barred from teaching, persecuted, and threatened with imprisonment by the Nazis. IIE President Stephen Duggan appointed Edward R. Murrow to lead the effort. In the first two years of the Committee’s existence, Murrow received requests for help from educators and researchers across Europe. The program expanded to include Austria, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Italy. Over 300 scholars were rescued, some of whom became Nobel Laureates and many whose work and ideas helped shape not only the academy, but the post-war world.

Read the 1944 list of IIE’s Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Scholars »

Rescue of Scholars from the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

The Spanish Civil War forced scholars into exile on both sides of the conflict. IIE used its network of centers in Latin America to find host campuses for scholars not placed in the United States.

Committee on Awards for Chinese Students, 1942-1945

The Committee assisted over 400 Chinese students stranded in the U.S. during the Second World War who were unable to receive funds to continue their studies. The Institute set up similar programs to assist Turkish and Iranian students and scholars who were unable to return to their countries due to war.

Emergency Program to Aid Hungarian University Students and Scholars, 1956-1958

As a result of the violent suppression of a popular uprising in Hungary, thousands were forced to flee the country. A joint committee was set up between IIE and the World University Service to aid academic refugees. Together they arranged for some 1000 students to receive admission to U.S. universities, many of whom later became leading professors in both hard and social sciences. In order to help the refugees overcome lack of fluency in English, IIE set up two special centers for intensive training and pre-academic orientation at Bard College and St. Michael’s College. Substantial funds to make this possible came from the Ford, Rockefeller, and other foundations, as well as the business community.

The South African Education Program (SAEP), 1979-1992

This program provided over one thousand black South Africans with access to education, denied to them under apartheid. The Institute arranged for nearly 200 universities to offer either full or partial scholarships, and additional resources were provided by the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and 85 other corporations and foundations.

Special consideration was given to those seeking to study in the fields of business administration, mathematics, education, science, and engineering. Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu’s Educational Opportunity Committee managed program selections inside South Africa. In 1983, USAID recognized the importance of this program, and contributed over $29 million. By the time of Nelson Mandela’s election, nearly 1700 SAEP fellows had completed their undergraduate, graduate, or short-term training programs, and 95 percent had returned to re-build South Africa. Many became leaders in academia.

Support of Burmese Refugee Students and Scholars, 1990-1992

In response to a U.S. Congressional mandate, IIE organized an initiative to train Burmese students and scholars who had been living as refugees in Thailand since September 1988. The Institute coordinated placement in U.S. universities for further training.

Emergency Higher Education Loan Programs (HELP), 1998-2000

Due to the Asian economic crises in the late 1990s, many Asian students studying in the U.S. suddenly found themselves without funds to continue their education. An initial grant of $7.5 million from the Freeman Foundation provided almost 1400 student loans over the course of two years. Repayments of the loans later enabled IIE to help students and scholars affected by the 2005 Tsunami. Other donors interested in Asia made possible the rescue of hundreds of scholars in the wake of the uprising in Tiananmen Square and those victims of the Cultural Revolution. In June 1999, IIE received a grant from the Open Society Institute to create a new fund for thousands of students from Albania, Macedonia, and the former Yugoslavia, who were studying in the U.S. and could no longer support themselves financially.

IIE Scholar Rescue Fund, 2002-Present

IIE-SRF formalized and seeks to endow the Institute’s long history of assisting scholars under threat. The Scholar Rescue Fund was created to ensure that there will always be a source of support to bring threatened scholars to safety, whenever and wherever they may be located.

IIE-SRF was built upon the expertise and experience gained during more than 80 years of managing emergency assistance programs since its early days. After the success of this program, IIE established separate programs for students and artists in emergencies.

“The world needs these scholars to be able to continue their critical teaching and research—for their own benefit, but also for our benefit, and for the benefit of their children and ours. When the conflicts that rage today inevitably come to an end, university professors—with expertise in essential fields from engineering to history to health care—will be critical to the re-building of their societies. They will drive the development that will be our best hope for long term stability. And they will have a crucial role to play as a moderating force against ethnic hatred and religious intolerance. Education is the catalyst that will propel us to a better future.” –Mark A. Angelson, IIE Chairman and IIE-SRF Chairman Emeritus 

 

Emergency Student Fund (ESF), 2010-Present

IIE’s ESF has provided over $8 million in emergency mini grants to more than 2,800 international students in the United States impacted by crises or natural disasters in Afghanistan, Australia, the Caribbean nations, China, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iran, Japan, Lebanon, Libya, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Syria, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Yemen, and Venezuela, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Artist Protection Fund, 2015-Present
IIE developed the Artist Protection Fund to fill a critical unmet need by protecting threatened artists and placing them at welcoming institutions in safe countries where they can continue their work and plan for their future.

IIE Platform for Education in Emergencies Response (IIE-PEER), 2017-Present
IIE-PEER is an online clearinghouse enabling more than 60,000 displaced and refugee students to connect with educational opportunities so they may continue formal and informal higher education.