News Releases

UWI part of President Obama’s 100,000 strong

For Release Upon Receipt - June 5, 2014

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus is part of a consortium which has been selected for one of the US Government’s 100,000 Strong Initiative in the Americas projects.  This was formally announced in San Diego on May 25 as part of the NAFSA Association of International Educators 2014 Conference, attended by over 8,400 professionals in the field of international education from around the globe. The successful project, coordinated by Northeastern University from the United States, is titled Promoting Study Abroad Partnerships for Innovation and Collaboration.

Northeastern University and its three partners from the Americas were announced as one of nine consortia to be successful in obtaining the grant to increase student mobility in the Americas and address institutional barriers that prevent students from studying abroad in the region. Mr. Markus Schulze, a Student Mobility Coordinator at The UWI St. Augustine’s Office of Institutional Advancement and Internationalisation, was present in San Diego to represent the campus and institution on the occasion of the formal announcement.

Through the Promoting Study Abroad Partnerships for Innovation and Collaboration project, Northeastern and its partners hope to propel a meaningful increase in US study-abroad students to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) through a three-pronged initiative aimed at creating institutional capacity in the areas of global programme design, international student service delivery and peer advising.

Northeastern University has sent summer study tours of students and faculty to the UWI St. Augustine Campus in the past and the other project partners will be the University of the Andes in Chile and the Fondacao Getulio Vargas in Brazil. The project will facilitate reciprocal student exchanges by creating a peer-advising network of virtual embassies linked to the US Department of State’s existing in-country EducationUSA advising centres.

Announced by President Obama in 2011, the goal of the competitive and prestigious 100,000 strong initiative is to reach 100,000 student exchanges annually in each direction between the United States and the countries of the Americas. To achieve this ambitious objective, the United States is asking governments, the private sector, and the higher education community to invest in the future of the hemisphere. The innovation fund is an important component of laying the foundation for expanding exchanges.

For further information on the 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative, log onto http://www.100kstrongamericas.org/

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Photo Caption:

Mr. Markus Schulz, Student Mobility Coordinator at The UWI’s Office of Institutional Advancement and Internationalisation [9th from right] poses with the representatives of nine other universities and their partners who were announced winners of 100,000 Strong in the Americas grants to expand study abroad.

 These institutions were hosted at a Capacity Building Workshop as part of the NAFSA: Association of International Educators 2014 Conference on May 25 and 26, 2014 in San Diego.

 

  

About The UWI

Since its inception in 1948, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged, regional University with well over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with four campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Open Campus. The UWI has faculty and students from more than 40 countries and collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. UWI’s seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation. Website: www.uwi.edu 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.) 

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