FLAS Project Administration for FLAS Coordinators.

US Department of EducationInternational and Foreign

Language Education Service (IFLE)

Beth MacRae & Peter Baker

Program Officers

FLAS Project Administration for FLAS Coordinators

FLAS Fiscal Years 2010-2013

Closing Date Notice (CDN) - $35,400,000 IFLE recommended - $35,398,500 FLAS programs – 126 Graduate AY fellowships – 792 Undergraduate AY fellowships – 271 Summer fellowships - 693

Programs by Geographic Areas

World Area or Thematic Focus FLAS Programs Recommended

Africa 12

Canada 2

East Asia 21

International 11

Latin America 18

Middle East 19

Russia, East Europe, and Eurasia 16

South Asia 9

Southeast Asia 7

Western Europe, Europe 11

Total 126

Eligibility Requirements for Graduate and Undergraduate

FLAS Recipients Students must be accepted for enrollment in

or enrolled at a FLAS-granting institution A student applying from a non-FLAS

granting institution must attend a FLAS-granting institution’s program

Eligibility – Undergraduate Student should be engaged in an

instructional program with stated performance goals for functional foreign language use, in combination with area studies, international studies, or the international professional studies program

FLAS awards may only be given for the intermediate or advanced study of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) (All foreign languages are acceptable except for German, Spanish, and French)

Eligibility – Graduate Students must take at least one

performance-based modern foreign language course in a program where performance-based modern foreign language instruction is provided

Students must take at least one related area studies, international studies, or the international aspects of professional studies course

FLAS Dissertation Research Abroad (AY only)

Students must be at the advanced level of language proficiency

All course work must be completed Comprehensive Exams must be completed The use of language in dissertation research must

be extensive enough to be considered equal to the improvement that would be obtained from a full academic year’s worth of formal classroom instruction

FLAS Dissertation Research Abroad (AY only) continued

Program officers request 1-2 page description of dissertation

Recommendation – Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Program or other dissertation programs

Competition

Programs must run each competition as described in the grant application

Information on when competitions occur, who is eligible, which schools at the university may apply, the difference between academic year and summer, etc. must be easy to understand

Competition cont.

Information to applicants should be clear and transparent, i.e. requirements for summer programs, unallowable countries or areas, process for alternates, where application is available, when it is due, how to apply, etc.

Competition Description

Competition Description cont.

Competition Description cont.

Fellowship Amounts Graduates

Academic Year Award

Summer Award

Institutional Payment

$18,000 $5,000

Subsistence Allowance

$15,000 $2,500

Total $33,000 $7,500

Travel Award (optional)

Not allowed Actual price of travel or up to

$1,000, whichever is less

Fellowship Amounts Undergraduates

Academic Year Award

Summer Award

Institutional Payment

$10,000 $5,000

Subsistence Allowance

$5,000 $2,500

Total $15,000 $7,500

Travel Award Not Allowed Actual price of travel or up to

$1,000, whichever is less

Institutional Payment: High Tuition and Fees

If the tuition and fee rates are greater than the institutional amount and the application stated that resources other than the student would be responsible for the difference between Title VI funds and the institution’s tuition and fee rate, then this must be honored for the entire grant cycle

Institutional Payment: High Tuition and Fees cont.

Example – Graduate AY tuition & fees is $20,500. Only $18,000 can be paid from the FLAS award, the remaining $2,500 must be waived or paid by another source (student, institution, or other)

Institutional Payment: Low Tuition and Fees

Any institutional funds in excess of the actual tuition and fees must be used to fund additional fellowship awards, to the extent that enough money is available to make a full award

Funds from other FLAS institutions can be combined to create an additional FLAS award

Institutional Fees

If health insurance is a mandatory cost for all students then that cost can be considered as part of the tuition and fees and paid for with that category of funds

Subsistence Allowance or Stipend

The subsistence allowance is meant to cover personal expenses including room and board

If room and board are included in the tuition/fee payment, you should not pay the student for the same costs. Subtract the amount from the subsistence allowance and give the student the remainder

Other Financial Issues

Student who does not complete a program– Each scenario is different– Contact the program officer– Payback is an institutional decision

For instance an institution may ask for part of the reward back, such as the prorated amount for a semester or quarter.

AY Fellowship Requirements – per semester or quarter

Graduate level At least one related area

studies course At least one language course Enrolled full-time (FLAS

institution’s definition of ‘full-time’)

Undergraduate level At least one area studies

course At least one language course Enrolled full-time (FLAS

institution’s definition of ‘full-time’)

Studying a LCTL at the intermediate or advanced level

Summer Fellowship Requirements

Graduate Level Minimum of 6 weeks in

length intensive language program

140 or more contact hours of instruction for students at the beginning and intermediate levels

120 or more contact hours of instruction for students at the advanced level

Undergraduate Level Minimum of 6 weeks in

length intensive language program

140 or more contact hours of instruction for students at the intermediate level

120 or more contact hours of instruction for students at the advanced level

Unexpended Funds

Unexpended funds from AY may be carried over to Summer

Summer only - If there is not enough money to make a full summer fellowship award, excess funds can be used to make travel awards for $1,000 or the actual cost of travel (whichever is less)

Unexpended Funds & Attachment Z

The grantee is required to obtain ED approval for the following:– Extending the project period end date (final

year)– Using grant funds carried forward that were not

obligated in the budget period– Expending grant funds before the budget period

start date

Transfer of Funds FLAS centers should attempt to make

awards at their own institution first, before transferring funds to other FLAS institutions

Reporting Requirements: The FLAS institution that funds the majority of the award must report on the student

All transfer information should be included on IRIS reports

Transfer of Funds

Summer Language Cooperatives

It is not appropriate to automatically transfer a predetermined number of fellowships to a domestic summer language institute at another institution

Make as many of your awards to students on your campus as possible and they may ‘take’ that award to a summer language institute

If all options to make awards on your campus are exhausted then you may transfer funds

Summer Language Cooperatives If you transfer funds to a summer language

institute - and you are the majority funder for a student-recipient - then you must report on that student in your final summer FLAS report

The language cooperative’s host institution is responsible to provide the donor institution with the relevant student information needed to complete the IRIS FLAS report

If a student at an institute is supported by your funds then the language that student is studying must be on your approved language list

Approvals - Language

Approvals – Overseas Program Requests (OPR)

Additional room for explanation ofthe request is available at the bottom of this screen

Approvals - Travel

Travel Approval Request (TAR) Any international travel for Fellows only

receiving a FLAS travel award Country, reason, dates, airlines, cost, any

comments Departure and return itinerary TARs are only for international travel

FLAS travel awards Students may receive up to $1,000 - or the

actual price of a ticket, whichever is less - in the form of a travel award for international or domestic travel

Travel awards can support international or domestic airfare, train, or car mileage costs

IRIS Travel Approval Requests (TARS) are only necessary for students whose international travel is being supported by a travel award – not for domestic travel

Additional data fields continue below…

Travel and Security cont. Check the State Dept.’s travel warning site before

submitting approving overseas programs/travel for approval

IFLE may consult with Embassies if travel is requested to countries with travel warning in place

If there are travel warnings, check to see if there are other countries with appropriate programs in the same language

Some travel requires fellows to acknowledge risks before approval

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html

Fly America Act (FAA) A law pertaining to federal government-

financed air transportation Requires fliers using federal funds to travel

on American-flag carriers ‘Open Skies Agreement’ modified this law

– currently effects flights to/from the EU In the Travel Approval Request (TAR)

screen in IRIS grantees must verify that flight plans follow FAA requirements

Fly America Act screen

FLAS travel awards cont.

Travel awards only occur when FLAS funds remain after AY & Summer fellowships are awarded

Do not pre-budget FLAS travel awards TARs should be submitted 30 days before

travel occurs

FLAS recipient surveys Aggregated data from your center’s survey

will be collected through a standardized screen in IRIS

Surveys will occur ONLY for FLAS recipients

Surveys will be every two years for eight years

Surveys must begin with the AY 10-11 cohort of students

Surveys continued… The tracking schedule is:

Aggregated data due date: 2010 (n/a)

Aggregated data due date: 10/1/2012

Aggregated data due date: 10/1/2014

Aggregated data due date: 10/1/2016

Aggregated data due date: 10/1/12018

AY 10 /11Summer 11(FY 10)

X X X X

AY 11/12Summer 12(FY 11)

X X X

AY 12/13Summer 13(FY 12)

X X X

AY 13/14Summer 14(FY 13)

X X

Surveys continued

Each center is responsible to survey its own FLAS recipients by whatever means/system it chooses to use

The data from the survey will be inputted into IRIS

Centers should align their survey systems to the information that will be inputted into IRIS

Working with Professional Schools

Ability to take FLAS fellowship requirements while in a professional program

Coming to a tuition and fees agreement with the professional school

Competitive priority

There was one Competitive Priority in the most recent FLAS competition – it read:

“Applications that propose to make at least 25% of their academic year fellowships in any of the 78 priority languages that were selected from the U.S. Department of Education’s list of Less Commonly Taught Languages.”

Competitive priority continued

If a grantee received those competitive priority points they must meet that threshold (25%) each academic year

Program Officers will be monitoring grantee performance to ensure the threshold is achieved

FLAS reporting scheduleReport Type

Due Date Contents

AY interim September 1st FLAS recipient info (1), Student self evaluation (pre award) (2), budget info (1), pre fellowship evaluation (3)

1. FLAS coordinator2. FLAS recipient3. Language evaluator

AY final June 1st Student self eval. (post award) (1), budget info (2), post fellowship eval. (3)

1. FLAS recipient2. FLAS coordinator3. Language evaluator

Summer interim

June 1st FLAS recipient info (1), Student self evaluation (pre award) (2), budget info (1), pre fellowship evaluation (3)

1. FLAS coordinator2. FLAS recipient3. Language evaluator

Summer final

September 1st Student self eval. (post award) (1), budget info (2), post fellowship eval. (3)

1. FLAS recipient2. FLAS coordinator3. Language evaluator

Report Types / Dates / Content