The Fulbright Program, awarding merit-based grants for international educational exchange to and from the US, became effective in 1946, thanks to United Nations’ advocate, James William Fulbright. The latter, had been recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship - an international postgraduate award to study at the University of Oxford, UK – before being elected Senator from Arkansas, in service from 1945 to 1974.
 
In the Old Continent, for a change, we have to wait until 1987, for the official ratification of the European Union student exchange program, the Erasmus Program – named after Dutch Renaissance humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam – that enables grantees to attend up to one year at an academic institution of their choice within Europe.