Pandemic exposes need for new university funding strategy. My interview with Wagdy Sawahel for University World News Africa Edition touched on philanthropy and higher education in Africa and the potential of university foundations. As governments around the world redirect capital spending towards mitigating the socio-economic impact of the pandemic and health sector requirements, universities are bracing themselves against the financial impacts on their own operations.
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I was in Dakar for Thanksgiving and presented my books, Unequal Partners and Partenaires inégaux at the West African Research Center (WARC). I was equally pleased to visit Université Cheick Anta Diop and exchange with the administrators of Fondation UCAD as well as meet with several professors and students.
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Multilingual education is booming in China, and the sector’s growth prospect for international languages is absolutely stunning. Thanks to Jacqueline Plessis and Wanling Liang, the educational team of the French Embassy in Beijing, I had several interesting exchanges with two Chinese experts on language education whom agreed to be interviewed for my podcast Révolution bilingue:
– Mr. Yu Zhonggen, Professor of English at Tsinghua University whose domain of research is English as a second language;
– Mrs. Zhu Yanhua, Professor in Human Sciences at Beijing Language and Culture University, whose domain of research is the Sino-Tibetan family, and the situation of cross-border languages, particularly the comparison between Chinese and Tibetan.
Je présenterai mes livres, La Révolution bilingue et Partenaires inégaux lors de ces prochains événements à Paris et Nice en espérant vous y retrouver. N’hésitez pas à faire circuler ces informations.Elizabeth R. Bruce wrote a wonderful review of my book, Unequal Partners: American Foundations and Higher Education Development in Africa in the Harvard Africa Policy Journal (Spring 2018). it is a publication dedicated to promoting dialogue about African policy and current affairs in the realms of governance, law, education, business, health, design, and culture.
I recently took part in a panel on philanthropy and education during the annual conference of the Comparative and International Education Society in Mexico City (CIES 2018), Re-Mapping Global Education: South-North Dialogue. The panel focused on the interplay at both policy and delivery level between the public sector and the philanthropic one. Funding to higher education is dependent on both national and global shifts in the grantors’ country, and in the receptiveness of African governments and institutions to the modalities of private funding. Neo-liberal trends influencing foundations have promoted the notion of the knowledge economy, which sees higher education as crucial for economic growth.
Continue readingMy first talk in French in a long while was at Fordham University where I was invited to present my new book, Partenaires inégaux : fondations américaines et universités en Afrique (Fondation maison des sciences de l’homme), to students in international relations and French studies.
