Committee Urges U.S. Universities Cooperate in Foreign Education

American universities should create a private organization to strengthen their educational leadership in world affairs, according to a Ford Foundation report released today. The study was prepared at the request of the State Department.

Included on the report committee were Dean Rusk, Secretary of State-designate; Arthur S. Flemming, presently Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare; and J. W. Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The report urges that the new organization, to be based on voluntary inter-university cooperation, must overcome American universities' "highly sporadic and unplanned" response to world affairs.

The organization, according to the report, would coordinate efforts of the American universities directed toward strengthening educational institutions overseas. The emerging countries of Asia and Africa need educated leadership, and whether they choose totalitarian or democratic government may depend on the educational level of this leadership and the citizenry, the report states.

The report rejects the idea of a "centrally directed effort," calling instead for "effective voluntary cooperation," especially between colleges and government agencies. Working through the organization, the government would still allocate the necessary funds "directly to the educational institutions, which would accept responsibility individually." Thus, the report hopes, possible government control would be lessened.

The report further calls for action by federal and state governments, foundations, and private enterprise. On the federal level, "the up-grading of educational competence is indispensable and overdue." Foundations, the report urges, should in particular make grants for "experimental and exemplary activities."

In particular the report recommends that the President designate the field of higher education and world affairs as "an area of special concern for one of his Assistants and as an area requiring special arrangements for coordination among the Cabinet Officers concerned."