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Aalborg University hosted the 26th of March 2009 a major international seminar addressing the challenges of development in the Bangladesh area (south – south-east Asia), one of the poorest regions in the world. The seminar focused on two important tools for achieving development
- Information- and Communication Technology (ICT) and
- Female Leadership.
ICT and female leadership have recently been connected at the newly established and groundbreaking Asian University for Women (AUW), located in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
The aim of the seminar was
- to establish a dialogue between researchers within the area of ICT, Development and Female Leadership, educational policy makers, development agencies, and ICT companies. The seminar presented the state of the art on the role ICT can play as a tool for development.
- to further develop the ideas for an international master programme in ICT at Asian University for Women, which Aalborg University is helping to set up.
- to celebrate the establishment of a Ph.D programme in relation to Asian University for Women. This Ph.D programme will offer Ph.Ds within the field of ICT-design, Learning and Collaboration for future staff at the Asian University for Women, and has been made possible by the kind financial support from the CW Obel foundation.
During the international seminar:
- Lone Dybkjær, who has been involved in the work of establishing Asian University for Women from the very beginning in 2002 was awarded an honorary professorship at Aalborg University, the Faculty of Humanities for her exceptional contribution.
The Asian University for Women: Vision
The Asian University for Women’s mission is focused on creating an institution of higher learning that will make an enduring contribution to the cause of women’s advancement in Asia.
AUW: An International and Asian Center of Excellence
The Asian University for Women will educate and cultivate women leaders from diverse backgrounds whose life experiences will combine with an extraordinary education to help them address the imperatives of social and economic advancement in Asia, and will in turn elevate the status of women in our societies. The Asian University for Women will select it student body of promising young women with great leadership potential from all cultural, religious, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds from across South and Southeast Asia – with a particular emphasis on the inclusion of women from poor, rural, and marginalized communities.
The Asian University for Women will offer a distinctive five-year program of study. The curriculum’s focus on critical thinking, entrepreneurship, communication, and problem solving is based on providing a comprehensive educational foundation, developing general intellectual capacity, and cultivating the ability to learn. The program includes three years of rigorous liberal arts education, followed by two years of graduate and professional study. With these skills, graduates from the Asian University for Women will be empowered to respond to have a positive impact on their lives, their families, communities and the broader society.
Based in Chittagong, Bangladesh and scheduled to open in 2008, the Asian University for Women will ultimately serve as a beacon for those striving to raise educational standards, increase opportunities for women, improve the livelihoods of underprivileged families and communities, address economic inequities, and promote regional cooperation and understanding among the people of Asia and beyond.
In a climate of pervasive institutionalized gender discrimination, it is often difficult for women to find their own voice and space for social and intellectual growth. The Asian University for Women is intended to provide female students with an opportunity to come together to enhance their knowledge capabilities and reflect on their individual and collective roles in reshaping the values, the mores, and the economic and social structures that inhibit the actualization of their full potential.
Aalborg University: An International and Danish Center of Excellence
In a relatively short period of time, less than a generation, Aalborg University has established itself as an internationally focused center of excellence with special commitments to problem-based learning, interdisciplinary study and research, and innovation. Aalborg University is an open and rigorous academic community that contributes to both the Danish society and the broader global world.
The Asian University for Women (AUW) equally aspires to be an internationally focused center of excellence. A partnership between Aalborg University and the Asian University for Women will further our mutual goals of creating internationally oriented research and education that benefits our local communities, engages intimately with the global world, and prepares and empowers our graduates to respond to the needs of a rapidly changing world.
As a premier research institution focused on a problem-oriented pedagogy, Aalborg University manifests the kind of innovative education that AUW hopes to offer. The Asian University for Women has entered into an agreement with Aalborg University through which the two institutions have formed a long-term partnership to develop a graduate program in Computer Science and Information and Communication Technology at AUW. Drawing on the intellectual talents of the faculty at Aalborg, such a partnership will bring world-class education to the gifted young women enrolled at AUW.
A memorandum of agreement was signed between the two institutions in Aalborg on October 10, 2006. A delegation from Aalborg University visited Bangladesh in February 2007, and established the initial parameters for the partnership. Under the provisions of the agreement, Aalborg University will collaborate with AUW on a number of areas:
- Aalborg University will create an academic infrastructure for the program, including the formulation of a curriculum for a two-year Master’s in Computer Science and Information Communication Technology.
- Aalborg University will help define the necessary prerequisites that will have to be offered in the undergraduate course of study for students to successfully pursue higher education at AUW.
- Aalborg University will guide AUW in the design, planning, and implementation of the facilities and equipments associated with the program.
- Aalborg University will provide extensive faculty support to AUW, including a number of faculty members to teach at AUW, until such time as AUW is able to recruit its own core faculty base.
- To develop a crew of highly trained Asian women who could serve in faculty positions at AUW, up to ten women from across the region may be eligible for additional doctoral training at Aalborg University, with a commitment to teach at AUW.
The Asian University for Women and Denmark
Denmark is a natural role model for the Asian University for Women. At a national level, Denmark has remarkably high achievement in gender equality through investment in education, legislative support for women in the workforce and the public sphere, and an overall commitment to promoting women’s empowerment. Moreover, the country’s leadership has transcended to the international level through Denmark’s particular emphasis on women’s involvement in reconstruction and development throughout Africa and Asia, and as demonstrated by Denmark’s remarkable generosity to development aid and active support of EU policy and projects in development assistance. The Danes are also far ahead of the rest of the developed work in facilitating cross-cultural debate and cooperation on global justice.
As it becomes more challenging for immigrants to attend the many premier higher education institutions in Denmark due to increased demand and competition, the Asian University for Women is especially honored to partner with Aalborg University to help promote an international dialogue and academic partnerships that benefit both the Danish academic community and the faculty and students from across Asia that are part of the Asian University for Women.
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