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In some countries, scholars are targets for violence. The Institute of International Education’s (IIE) Scholar Rescue Fund helps academic professionals escape repressive regimes where they are often viewed as a threat to the ruling authority.

Harassed by militants and extremists and imprisoned by governments, many foreign scholars seek a safe haven where they can openly continue their teaching and research. IIE helps them find those new homes.

 “We’re not worried about if we’ll have enough students but if we’ll have enough teachers,” said IIE President and CEO Alan Goodman, referring to the increasing number of academic scholars threatened and imprisoned around the world.

By “rescuing” these scholars and giving them the freedom to work in another country, IIE hopes to preserve intellectual capital one person at a time, he said.

The institute helps scholars from all disciplines, although those in social sciences appear to be the most at risk worldwide, Goodman said.

“But if you look at regional statistics, like in the Middle East, where the proportion of senior scholars is weighted in the physical and medical sciences, those disciplines far outweigh the number of scholars coming to us from the social sciences and humanities,” he said.

Lone Star College (previously called Cy-Fair College) in Texas hosted one of the scholars. The Liberian scholar of literature caught up in a coup in his country and was targeted to be killed.

Once in the program, the instructor was allowed to teach creative writing at Lone Star, where Goodman said his classes were popular.

Most of the rescue requests come from Iraq, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and the Palestine/Israeli-Occupied Territories, Goodman said.

Due to the large number of scholars threatened and killed in Iraq, the fund launched a special emergency rescue fund to help more than 150 senior scholars in the country. Goodman is in contact with Iraq’s minister of higher education, who has identified hundreds of potential participants.

There is concern that some of the instructors may not want to return to Iraq. The higher education minister is careful not to permit too many professors to go abroad as he looks to them to help re-establish Iraq’s higher education institutions.

About a third of the rescued scholars have returned to their home countries when the violence has ended, Goodman said.

“The scholars really have in their minds that this is temporary. They don’t have a refugee mentality, and it can be very difficult to get them to apply,” he said.

Since the fund started in 2002, it has helped more than 100 scholars from 35 different countries, Goodman said.

Although many countries participate in the program, about 60 percent of the host institutions are in the U.S., Goodman said.

“The Scholar Rescue Fund has had remarkable success finding academic positions for scholars at over 50 institutions in the U.S., but the fund is always seeking new partners,” he said.

While Goodman said that most scholars find out about the fund through the Internet, IIE has outreach efforts to international academic circles, human rights organizations and humanitarian aids groups to help spread the word. Goodman himself advocates for the fund and would like to see more community colleges involved. He recently spoke at a meeting of the World Congress and International Federation of Community and Further Education Colleges in New York.

Community colleges can get involved by requesting a list of profiling scholars who are trying to find homes and a synopsis of what they teach. Fellowships range from three months to one year, Goodman said.

“The more host institutions willing and able to join our efforts, the faster we can bring scholars to safety and to the most effective, productive academic work,” he said.

Matching support in-full or in-kind is required of the host institution or through another source, generally as a stipend, salary or other direct funding for the candidate.

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