Obama Pledges Increase in Student Exchange With Muslim World

Educational exchange will play a role in the “new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world” that President Obama laid out today in a landmark speech to the Muslim world at Cairo University, in Egypt.

“On education, we will expand exchange programs and increase scholarships, like the one that brought my father to America, while encouraging more Americans to study in Muslim communities,” Mr. Obama said.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, students from Muslim countries wanting to study in the United States have faced unprecedented scrutiny. Many have not been able to take advantage of study opportunities because they haven’t been able to secure the necessary visas.

And while American students have become increasingly interested in the Middle East, the number of Americans who actually spend time studying there remains low.

Mr. Obama also said that in many Muslim communities there remains an “underinvestment” in education and innovation, and he urged leaders to refocus their priorities.

He announced plans to use science and innovation to help alleviate the job crisis that looms in many Muslim countries. In the Middle East, for example, a majority of the region’s population is younger than 25.

President Obama pledged to start a new fund to support science and technology development in Muslim-majority countries that would help transfer ideas to the marketplace and create jobs.

He said he would also open “centers of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia” and appoint “science envoys” to collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize records, clean up water, and grow new crops. —Andrew Mills