Visiting scholar programs for Canadians?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Fulbright program.

While I have been in Croatia and other parts of central Europe I have met several (and have heard about many more) American professors who, through the Fulbright program, have been enjoying their stints as visiting professors all over the place—and some have travelled on Fulbrights more than once. It’s a sweet, sweet deal if you get a Fulbright, and about 800 American professors a year do win these grants and take up positions at universities abroad for a full academic year.

Everyone here has been asking me how I ended up teaching at the University of Zagreb as a visiting professor, and I explain that it’s through a Memorandum of Understanding between our two universities which, as far as I can tell, is a new agreement and came about through personal connections between people in Zagreb and people in Waterloo. I expect that other visiting scholar or international student exchange programs came into being in a similar manner. Individuals have to adopt the cause and do the legwork to establish these international arrangements. And then, of course, the universities involved have to be constantly encouraged to keep them going.

And what’s the downside to international exchange programs? None that I can see. Students benefit by having foreign professors teach subjects to which they would otherwise not be exposed. The department benefits by having some of their teaching done by people from away. Individual faculty members benefit from personal contact with a Canadian who can help them with their research, can point them towards resources, introduce them to other colleagues, compare notes about teaching and research, and so on. We are constantly exchanging titles and authors and telling stories about our respective lives and careers. And for me, as the visiting professor, the rewards are endless. I hope I have conveyed some of my deep appreciation for all of my experiences in this blog. I am learning so much! And I am enjoying both the hospitality that has been extended to me—consistently—and the evident gratitude that my European colleagues and their students have conveyed. I feel valued.

Why wouldn’t universities develop and support these sorts of academic exchanges? Okay, they often rely on the free labour offered by individuals. More difficult is this question: where does the money come from? Through the MoU between Waterloo and Zagreb my university paid for my airfare (or will after I submit tickets and boarding passes) and covered the costs of shipping books to Croatia. I applied for and was granted an early (6 month) sabbatical, so I receive most of my UW salary. The University of Zagreb is paying for the apartment in which I am living and has given me some money for living expenses (about $900). When I have been invited to give a lecture at other universities, those universities have covered all of the travel, accommodation, and food/drink expenses. I am happy with all of these arrangements.

But where is the external funding? Where is our version of the Fulbright program? Um, there isn’t one, as far as I know. I've found these two programs. But there must be others.

Bridgewater University  http://www.bridgew.edu/canada/killamprofessor.cfm
University of Edinburgh http://www.cst.ed.ac.uk/Staff/Visiting/