The report from the Inspector General’s office says that’s because the State Department’s programs are poorly run. It says some programs need to be restructured and another federal agency — the Labor Department — may need to take over others.

While people are rightly pointing to the power of social media to bring people across societies together, exchanges still represent a key component of public diplomacy. Exchanges offer an in-depth experience with a foreign country, its culture, its systems, and most importantly, its people.

ECA is pleased to announce the 2012 Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF), which aims to harness the leadership capacity of exchange program alumni worldwide. AEIF awards up to $25,000 to winning teams of alumni to fund projects tackling issues from human rights to women’s entrepreneurship to interfaith understanding.

Beginning February 9 in Atlanta, Georgia, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) will host the first of nine 2012 Fulbright Foreign Student Enrichment Seminars. Students will learn about the U.S. political system and the electoral process.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has announced that 100 students from Pakistan are participating in the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program’s (Global UGRAD-Pakistan) arrival orientation in Washington, D.C.

As the J-1 program brings over 100,000 young people coming to the U.S. annually, it has become as much about money as cultural understanding. The reforms by State Department would limit and refine the types of jobs students can have and ensure that the objective of the program — positive exposure to the United States — is accomplished.

Many Chinese are fascinated by the United States, and it remains a top destination for China’s young people to study. Some American programs do send musicians or speakers to China and invite Chinese opinion makers to see the United States firsthand. But the four-day U.S.-China Forum event highlighted how unusual it was for the United States to provide broad access to American culture beyond pirated Hollywood movies.

Vogue editor Anna Wintour announced a new initiative called the China Design Program. It will be a kind of cultural exchange that sends American designers to China to learn about manufacturing, marketing, and other aspects of the fashion business there—and a Chinese designer spends time in the U.S.