In this OPE Program Guide, we have organized OPE programs by their primary purpose. The guide provides a brief summary of the program and a link to the main program page. Follow the links below for the program descriptions. Follow the links found on the individual program pages for more detailed program information.

Helping All Americans Reach Postsecondary Education - OPE's support for higher education begins even before students enroll in postsecondary institutions. Students -- especially those who may become the first in their families to get a postsecondary education -- need to plan early for college and get information, encouragement and academic support in preparing for higher education.

Improving Teaching at All Levels - Quality instruction is essential to student learning at all levels of education. Postsecondary institutions play an important role in training teachers for elementary and secondary schools. OPE's program on Teacher Quality addresses teacher education, while our Fulbright-Hays international programs support quality instruction at the postsecondary level by funding faculty research and educational experiences abroad.

Supporting Undergraduate Students - Once students are enrolled in postsecondary institutions, they may still need support in the form of special services in addition to financial aid to stay in school and succeed. Among the OPE programs addressing needs for special services are several TRIO programs and the Childcare Access Means Parents in School Program.

Most Federal student aid is available through the Federal Pell Grant Program and the Federal Family Education Loans and Direct Loans Programs located in the Department of Education's Office of Federal Student Aid (OFSA). Information about those programs can be obtained by calling 1-800-4FED AID/1-800-433-3243.

Supporting Graduate Students and Faculty - OPE's support for students continues through graduate school. Several programs provide funding, directly or through institutions of higher education, for graduate fellowships and research and educational experiences abroad.

Promoting Innovation and Technology in Education - Ensuring that America's students are the best-educated in the world requires postsecondary education institutions to be innovative, replicate educational approaches that work, and take advantage of new technologies that improve student learning. Several OPE programs support those requirements.

Strengthening International Education - Many OPE programs are designed to strengthen international education, including several that fund postsecondary institutions to teach students the language skills and knowledge they need to work effectively in today's international economy with the many nations who are our trading partners or competitors.

Improving Access to High Quality Education Through Institutional Development and Support - To ensure that every American has access to quality higher education, OPE's institutional development programs provide funds to build academic and administrative capacity at postsecondary institutions serving a large proportion of disadvantaged students.

Improving Access to High Quality Education Through Recognition of Agencies That Accredit Postsecondary Education - To ensure that every American has access to quality higher education, OPE staff and national committees evaluate agencies accrediting postsecondary institutions and programs and recognize those monitoring institutions and programs according to accepted standards and practices.

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Helping All Americans Reach Postsecondary Education

• College Access Challenge Grant Program

  Description: Fosters partnerships among federal, state, and local governments and philanthropic organizations through matching challenge grants that are aimed at increasing the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.

  Potential Grantees: State Agencies

• Educational Opportunity Centers

  Description: Funds centers to provide counseling and information on college admission and attendance to qualified adults who want to enter or continue a postsecondary education program. EOCs help participants apply to college and for financial aid.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, public and private agencies or organizations, a combination of those, and in exceptional cases, secondary schools.

• Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP)

  Description: Provides grants to community-based partnerships and to states to encourage more young people to have high expectations, stay in school, study hard, and take the right courses to go to college.

  Potential Grantees: Community-based partnerships of at least one postsecondary institution, at least one school district acting on behalf of (one or more) middle schools and high schools in low-income communities, and at least two other public or private organizations; also, state agencies designated by a governor.

• Talent Search

  Description: Funds projects to identify and assist individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds with the potential to succeed in higher education. Projects provide academic, career, and financial counseling and encourage participants to graduate from high school and go on to the postsecondary education institution of their choice. Talent Search projects also encourage high school dropouts to reenter the educational system and complete their education.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, public and private agencies or organizations, a combination of those, and in exceptional cases, secondary schools.

• Upward Bound

  Description: Funds projects to serve high school students from low-incomes families and from families in which neither parent has a four-year degree, as well as low-income, first-generation military veterans who are preparing for postsecondary education. All Upward Bound projects provide instruction in math, laboratory science, composition, literature and foreign language.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, public and private agencies or organizations, a combination of those, and in exceptional cases, secondary schools.

• Upward Bound Math-Science

  Description: Funds projects to strengthen the math and science skills of participating students from low-income families and from families in which neither parent has a four-year degree, as well as low-income, first-generation military veterans who are preparing for postsecondary education. The projects help participants recognize and develop their potential to excel in math and science and to pursue postsecondary degrees in those fields.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, public and private organizations, a combination of those, and in exceptional cases, secondary schools.

• Training Program for Federal TRIO Programs Staff

  Description: Provides funding to enhance the skills and expertise of project directors and staff employed in Federal TRIO programs. Training projects may include conferences, seminars, internships, workshops, or publication of manuals.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, and public or private nonprofit agencies or organizations.

• Veterans Upward Bound

  Description: Veterans Upward Bound is designed to motivate and assist veterans in the development of academic and other requisite skills necessary for acceptance and success in a program of postsecondary education. The program provides assessment and enhancement of basic skills through counseling, mentoring, tutoring and academic instruction in the core subject areas. The primary goal of the program is to increase the rate at which participants enroll in and complete postsecondary education programs.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, public and private agencies and organizations including community-based organizations with experience in serving disadvantaged youth, combinations of such institutions, agencies and organizations, and as appropriate to the purpose of the program secondary schools.

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Improving Teaching at All Levels

• Demonstration Projects to Ensure Quality Higher Education for Students with Disabilities

  Description: Supports technical assistance and professional development activities for faculty and administrators to improve their ability to provide a quality postsecondary education for students with disabilities.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

• Fulbright-Hays Training Grant--Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad

  Description: Funds institutions of higher education to provide (6- to 12-month) grants to doctoral students doing dissertation research in other countries in modern foreign languages and area studies. Eligible students must be plannning a teaching career in the United States upon graduation.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

• International Research and Studies

  Description: Supports surveys, studies, and development of instructional materials to improve and strengthen instruction in modern foreign languages, area studies, and other international fields.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, public and private agencies, organizations, and individuals.

• Language Resource Centers

  Description: Provides grants for establishing, strengthening, and operating centers serving as resources for improving the nation's capacity for teaching and learning foreign languages through teacher training, research, materials development, and dissemination projects.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, individually or in consortia.

• Teachers for a Competitive Tomorrow

  Description: The TCT initiative includes two types of discretionary grant programs for baccalaureate degree programs and for master's degree programs to develop and implement programs to provide integrated courses of study in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), or critical foreign languages, and teacher education; to develop and implement two- or three-year, part-time master's degree programs in STEM or critical foreign language education for teachers; and to develop programs for professionals in STEM or critical foreign language education that lead to a master's degree in teaching that results in teacher certification.

  Potential Grantees: An institution of higher education as defined under Section 101A of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, on behalf of a department of STEM or a critical foreign language, or on behalf of a department or school with a competency-based degree program that includes teacher certification may receive funding under this program.

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Supporting Undergraduate Students

• Centers of Excellence for Veteran Student Success

  Description: Encourages model programs to support veteran student success in postsecondary education by coordinating services to address the academic, financial, physical, and social needs of veteran students.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

• Child Care Access Means Parents in School

  Description: Supports the participation of low-income parents in postsecondary education by providing campus-based childcare services.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

• Erma Byrd Scholarship Program

  Description: Provides scholarships to individuals pursuing a course of study that will lead to a career in industrial health and safety occupations, including mine safety. This program is designed to increase the skilled workforce in these fields at both the fundamental skills level and the advanced skills level.

  Potential Grantees: Individuals.

• McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement

  Description: Supports preparing undergraduate participants from disadvantaged backgrounds who demonstrate high academic potential for doctoral studies. It does this by involving them in research, scholarly activities and through counseling, mentoring, and tutoring for doctoral studies.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, individually and in consortia.

• National Center for Information and Technical Support for Postsecondary Students with Disabilities

  Description: The national center provides technical assistance and information on best and promising practices for students with disabilities as they transition to, or attend, postsecondary education.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations; or a partnership of two or more such IHEs or organizations.

• Student Support Services

  Purpose: Funds academic, financial, and personal counseling as well as mentoring and tutoring to help eligible students stay in college and complete their programs. Eligible students are first-generation college students from low-income families or students with disabilities. This TRIO program may also provide grant aid to current SSS participants who have Federal Pell Grants.

  Potential grantees: Institutions of higher education, individually and in consortia.

• Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

  Description: This program enables institutions to create or expand high quality, inclusive model comprehensive transition and postsecondary programs for students with intellectual disabilities.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

• Transition Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities Coordinating Center

  Description: The coordinating center will provide technical assistance to IHEs that offer comprehensive transition and postsecondary programs for students with intellectual disabilities, and will work with these programs to evaluate program components and recommend standards for such programs.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

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Supporting Graduate Students and Faculty

• Demonstration Projects to Ensure Quality Higher Education for Students with Disabilities

  Description: Supports technical assistance and professional development activities for faculty and administrators to improve their ability to provide a quality postsecondary education for students with disabilities.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

• Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need

  Description: Funds institutions of higher education to provide graduate fellowships in selected fields for students with excellent records who demonstrate financial need and who plan to pursue the highest degree available in their field.

  Potential Grantees: Academic departments and programs of institutions of higher education.

• American Overseas Research Centers

  Description: Provides grants to establish or operate overseas research centers promoting postgraduate research, exchanges, and area studies.

  Potential Grantees: Consortia of institutions of higher education.

• Jacob K. Javits Fellowships

  Description: Provides graduate fellowships to students of superior ability who demonstrate financial need and are pursuing the highest degree available in selected fields of the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

  Potential Grantees: Eligible students in graduate programs in selected fields of study.

• Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships

  Description: Funds institutions of higher education to provide graduate (academic-year and summer) fellowships for acquiring combined competencies in foreign language and area or international studies.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

• Fulbright-Hays Training Grants--Faculty Research Abroad

  Description: Provides grants to support faculty maintaining and improving their area studies and language skills by conducting research abroad for periods of 3 to 12 months.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

• Fulbright-Hays Training Grants--Group Projects Abroad

  Description: Provides grants to support overseas projects in training, research, and curriculum development in modern foreign languages and area studies by teachers, students, or faculty engaged in a common endeavor. Projects may include short-term seminars, curriculum development, group research or study, or advanced intensive language programs.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, state education departments, private nonprofit education organizations, and consortia.

• Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad--Bilateral Projects

  Description: Funds short-term study/travel seminars abroad for U.S. educators in the social sciences and humanities for the purpose of improving their understanding and knowledge of the peoples and cultures of other countries.

  Potential Grantees: Support is generally made available through interagency agreements to the State Department.

• Fulbright-Hays Training Grant--Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad

  Description: Funds institutions of higher education to provide (6- to 12-month) grants to doctoral students doing dissertation research in other countries in modern foreign languages and area studies.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

• Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program

  Description: Provides low-income, minority, or disadvantaged college students with information, counseling, and financial assistance for gaining access to and completing law school.

  Potential Grantee: Council on Legal Education Opportunity.

• Minorities and Retirement Security Program

  Description: To provide grants that support research by graduate students at selected graduate institutions with high proportions of minority and low-income students in the areas of retirement security, financial literacy, and financial decisionmaking.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education that are current grantees under one of the following programs: Strengthening Historically Black Graduate Institutions [84.031B]; Master's Degree Programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities [84.382G]; Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans [84.031M]; and Master's Degree Programs at Predominantly Black Institutions [84.382D].

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Promoting Innovation and Technology in Education

• First in the World (FITW) -- a FIPSE program

  Description: Provides grants to institutions of higher education to spur the development of innovations that improve educational outcomes, makes college more affordable for students and families, and develops an evidence base of effective practices.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education and consortia of such institutions.

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Strengthening International Education

• National Resource Centers

  Description: Provides grants to establish, strengthen, and operate centers of language and area/international studies serving as national resources for teaching modern foreign languages; providing instruction needed for full understanding of areas, regions, or countries; training and research in international studies; language aspects of professional and other fields of study; and instruction and research on world affairs.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, individually and in consortia.

• Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program

  Description: Provides funds to plan, develop, and carry out programs to strengthen and improve undergraduate instruction in international studies and foreign languages.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, individually, in consortia, or in partnership with nonprofit educational organizations.

• International Research and Studies

  Description: Supports surveys, studies, and development of instructional materials to improve and strengthen instruction in modern foreign languages, area studies, and other international fields.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, public and private agencies, organizations, and individuals.

• Business and International Education

  Description: Provides funds for institutions of higher education that enter into agreements with trade associations and/or businesses to improve the academic teaching of the business curriculum and to conduct outreach activities expanding the capacity of the business community to engage in international economic activities.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

• Centers for International Business Education

  Description: Provides funding to schools of business in institutions of higher education for curriculum development, research, and training on issues of importance to U.S. trade and competitiveness.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education.

• Language Resource Centers

  Description: Provides grants for establishing, strengthening, and operating centers serving as resources for improving the nation's capacity for teaching and learning foreign languages through teacher training, research, materials development, and dissemination projects.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, individually or in consortia.

• American Overseas Research Centers

  Description: provides grants to establish or operate overseas research centers that promote postgraduate research, exchanges, and area studies.

  Potential Grantees: Consortia of higher education institutions.

• Institute for International Public Policy

  Description: Provides a single grant to assist a consortium of colleges and universities fund an institute dedicated to increasing the number of minorities in international service, including private international voluntary organizations and the U.S. Foreign Service.

  Potential Grantees: Consortia of institutions of higher education.

• Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access

  Description: Provides grants to develop innovative techniques or programs addressing national teaching and research needs in international education and foreign languages by using new electronic technologies to access, collect, organize, preserve, and widely disseminate information on world regions and countries other than the United States.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, public or nonprofit libraries, or combinations of institutions or libraries.

• Program for North American Mobility in Higher Education

  Description: Provides grants to promote exchanges of students within the context of multilateral curricular development in a wide range of academic and professional disciplines among Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

  Potential Grantees: Consortia of Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. institutions of higher education or combinations of institutions and other public and private nonprofit educational institutions and agencies.

• FIPSE European Union-United States Atlantis Program

  Description: The program, jointly administered and funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) and the European Commission's Directorate General for Education and Culture, provides grants for up to three years to add a European Community-United States dimension to international curriculum development and related student exchange.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, other nonprofit organizations and/or agencies.

• United States-Russia Program

  Description: Provides grants to consortia of institutions of higher education to promote cooperation in education and science between the United States and Russia.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education, combinations of institutions of higher education, and other public and private nonprofit institutions and agencies.

• U.S.-Brazil Higher Education Consortia Program

  Description: Provides grants to foster the exchange of students and faculty within the context of bilateral curricular development between Brazil and the United states.

  Potential Grantees: Consortia of Brazilian and U.S. institutions of higher education and vocational and training institutions.

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Improving Access to High Quality Education Through Institutional Development and Support

• Strengthening Institutions

  Description: Provides grants for improving and strengthening academic quality, management, and fiscal stability to increase the capacity to serve low-income students.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education serving a substantial proportion of students receiving Federal financial aid. Specific sums are also available for American Indian Tribally-Controlled Colleges and Universities and for Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions.

• Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities

  Description: Provides grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for establishing or strengthening their physical plant, management capabilities, academic resources, and endowment-building capacity. Funds may be used for student services, educational equipment acquisition, facility construction, and faculty/staff development.

  Potential Grantees: Historically Black Colleges and Universities, as designated by law.

• Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions

  Description: Provides funds for expanding the capacity of institutions of higher education to serve Hispanic and low-income students through faculty development, fiscal and administrative management, endowments, curriculum development, scientific or laboratory equipment for teaching, construction, renovation of instructional facilities, joint use of facilities, academic tutoring, counseling programs, and student support services.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education whose FTE enrollment is at least 25 percent Hispanic and 50 percent from low-income families.

• Strengthening Historically Black Graduate Institutions

  Description: Awards grants to Historically Black Graduate Institutions for improving and strengthening academic quality, institutional management, access, and fiscal stability.

  Potential Grantees: Historically Black Graduate Institutions, as designated by law.

• Minority Science and Engineering Improvement

  Description: Provides funds to foster long-range improvement in science and engineering education programs for minorities and increase the flow of underrepresented minorities, particularly minority women, into science and engineering careers.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education whose minority enrollment exceeds 50 percent; professional scientific societies; nonprofit science organizations; and non-minority institutions of higher education providing needed services to a group of eligible minority institutions.

• Historically Black College and University Capital Financing Program

  Description: Provides low-cost capital for financing or refinancing the repair, renovation, and construction of classrooms, libraries, laboratories, dormitories, instructional equipment, and research instrumentation.

  Potential Applicants: Historically Black Colleges and Universities, as designated by law.

• Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution Program

  Description: Supports institutions of education in their effort to increase their self-sufficiency by improving academic programs, institutional management, and fiscal stability.

  Potential Grantees: Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions of higher education

• Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions Program

  Description: Supports institutions of education in their effort to increase their self-sufficiency by improving academic programs, institutional management, and fiscal stability.

  Potential Grantees: Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions

• Predominantly Black Institutions Program - Formula Grants

  Description: Makes formula grant awards to eligible institutions to plan, develop, undertake and implement programs to enhance the institution’s capacity to serve more low- and middle-income Black American students; to expand higher education opportunities for eligible students by encouraging college preparation and student persistence in secondary school and postsecondary education; and to strengthen the financial ability of the institution to serve the academic needs of these students.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education that meet the definition of a Predominantly Black Institution

• Predominantly Black Institutions Program - Competitive Grants

  Description: Supports the strengthening of predominantly Black institutions to carry out programs in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics; health education; internationalization or globalization; teacher preparation; or improving educational outcomes of African-American males through competitive grants.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education that meet the definition of a Predominantly Black Institution

• Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans

  Description: Provides grants to: (1) expand postbaccalaureate educational opportunities for, and improve the academic attainment of, Hispanic students; and (2) expand the postbaccalaureate academic offerings as well as enhance the program quality in the institutions of higher education that are educating the majority of Hispanic college students and helping large numbers of Hispanic and low-income students complete postsecondary degrees.

  Potential Grantees: Institutions of higher education that offer a postbaccalaureate certificate or degree program and qualify as eligible Hispanic-serving institutions

• Masters Degree Programs at Predominantly Black Institutions

  Description: To improve graduate education opportunities at the master’s level in mathematics, engineering, physical or natural sciences, computer science, information technology, nursing, allied health or other scientific disciplines where African American students are under-represented.

  Potential Grantees: With the enactment of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008, only five predominantly Black institutions are eligible to receive funding.

• Master's Degree Programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

  Description: To improve graduate education opportunities at the master's level in mathematics, engineering, physical or natural sciences, computer science, information technology, nursing, allied health or other scientific disciplines where African American students are underrepresented. Funding will be provided to the institutions listed under the Eligibility section.

  Potential Grantees: With the enactment of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008, 18 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) will receive funding.

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Improving Access to High Quality Education Through Recognition of Agencies That Accredit Postsecondary Education

• Accreditation

  Description: Administers for the Secretary of Education the process of recognizing agencies that accredit institutions of higher education. Postsecondary educational institutions must be accredited by an agency recognized by the Secretary to be eligible to participate in Title IV student aid programs authorized by the Higher Education Act and other Federal programs as designated by the sponsoring Federal agency. ASL also strengthens postsecondary accountability by facilitating communication among staff in the Department of Education, state regulatory agencies, accrediting agencies, guaranty agencies, and other stakeholders in postsecondary education.

• National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI)

  Description: The NACIQI is a Federal advisory committee comprised of 15 members appointed by the Secretary of Education that is responsible for advising the Secretary on issues pertaining to the accreditation of postsecondary institutions and to the eligibility and certification process for those institutions to participate in Title IV student financial aid programs. The primary role of the NACIQI has been to provide recommendations to the Secretary concerning the recognition of accrediting agencies, state approval agencies for public postsecondary vocational education, and state approval agencies for nurse education that monitor the schools they accredit according to accepted standards and practices.

• National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation (NCFMEA)

  The NCFMEA is an operational committee comprised of 11 members appointed by the Secretary of Education that is responsible for reviewing the standards that foreign countries use to accredit medical schools to determine whether those standards are comparable to the standards used to accredit medical schools in the United States. If a country is determined to have comparable medical accreditation standards, then accredited medical schools in that country may apply to participate in the Title IV Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program. If the medical school meets the administrative and financial responsibility requirements to participate in the FFEL Program and signs a participation agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, then American students attending that foreign medical school may apply to receive loans under that program.

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U.S. Department of Education
Office of Postsecondary Education
Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) Building
400 Maryland Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC 20202