Eighteen educational organisations, lead by NAFSA Association of International Educators last week sent a letter to president Barack Obama urging him to lift restrictions on academic travel to Cuba, which was imposed by the Bush administration in 2004.

This new effort to allow academic exchange programmes between the US and Cuba has come as a result of Obama’s willingness to forge new ties with Cuba when he proposed an “equal partnership” with all nations of the Americas at the Summit of the Americas in April.

In the letter, signed by NAFSA and seventeen other organisations, the organisations praise Obama’s plans of a new beginning with Cuba and urge him to change the restrictions on exchange programmes between the US and Cuba as a vital step in this new relationship. The letter states:

“As you recently noted in your address to a group of students in Turkey, “exchanges can break down the walls between us.” However, Cuba currently remains the only country in the world where the United States government restricts study by American students, as well as academic travel by bona fide teachers and researchers….One way in which to advance opportunities for young people to engage internationally would be to lift the current restrictions and permit academic travel to Cuba via general license. We would also welcome a trend of granting US visas for Cubans coming for exchange purposes”.

The full letter is available to view and download here. NAFSA have also published details of the legislation and will update any changes on the Public Policy page of their website.