Kairat Kurakbayev of Kazakhstan and Berdymurad Ovezmuradov of Turkmenistan attend the Comparative & International Education Society Conference at Columbia University in 2008.

The Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP) provides university faculty in the early stages of their careers with strong potential for leadership in their disciplines, opportunities to upgrade their knowledge of the subjects they teach, and to maintain on-going contacts between their home and host institutions. Approximately seventy (70) scholarships are awarded for participants from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The JFDP affiliates the finalists with U.S. colleges and universities for a fully funded one-semester, non-degree program in the humanities and social science fields to gain an in-depth perspective on their fields of study and to acquire understanding of the U.S. educational system. Participants also teach a course or give lectures where possible. Recruitment, selection and placement are administered through a cooperative agreement with the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS, except for Uzbekistan, where the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy coordinates and implements the program.