AWB’s vision is that higher education is essential to building a more prosperous, healthy, and stable world. Such a world cannot exist unless it is free of racism and injustice of all kinds. Therefore, at this time, we reiterate our unwavering commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as fundamental values at the heart of our work and indispensable elements of the type of higher education in which we believe.
Why higher education is important for the world’s health
May 2, 2020 – University World News – “In late February, well before much of the world beyond China had recognised the full reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bill Gates, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, highlighted the importance of considering the plight of those in low- and middle-income countries.
As those of us in regions with greater resources struggle with the unprecedented challenges facing our hospitals and healthcare systems, we must not forget the tragedy that COVID-19 could wreak on these communities, which could well be worse than what we have already seen elsewhere.
Underscoring the vulnerability of those in low- and middle-income countries, Gates made two important points. First, we need to directly support these countries as much as possible. Second, we must take a longer-term perspective to support their efforts to build stronger healthcare and public health systems so that they are better prepared for the next such crisis.”
Read more of this article by AWB’s Executive Director Greg Moran.
U of T researchers volunteer to help Brazilian university build its first qualitative health research program
U of T Associate Professor Denise Gastaldo, Margarida de Aquino Cunha, the rector of Brazil’s Federal University of Acre and Rozilaine Redi Lago
“Rozilaine Redi Lago, a visiting PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research (CQ) four years ago, taught the only qualitative research course at the Federal University of Acre (UFAC) in Brazil following her graduation. But she saw a pressing need for an entire program – a goal that U of T’s Denise Gastaldo and Brenda Gladstone, both volunteers with Academics Without Borders (AWB), are now helping to realize.”
Read more of this December 4, 2019 article about AWB volunteers from the University of Toronto.
Article about AWB’s work with African Institute for Mathematical Sciences
AIMS works with partners to develop environmental policy – October 13
“The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) initiated a project to develop a comprehensive environmental policy for the AIMS network. AIMS acknowledges the importance of protecting environmental values as part of the global community. This project was developed with the assistance of Academics Without Borders and the University of Calgary.” “…Professor Getachew Assefa from the University of Calgary, working as an AWB volunteer on the project, donated his time and talent to assist AIMS in developing its first environmental policy.”
Read the full AIMS article here.
AWB’s Executive Director participates in panel at Carleton University
Greg Moran, Executive Director of AWB, participated in a panel of experts on the topic of internationalization at a Sept. 9, 2019 event to support strategic planning at Carleton University. Carleton posted an article about the event on its website – read “Strategic Planning Speaker Series Explores a Global Perspective” here!
Brock volunteers enhancing education across the globe
Brock Faculty of Education Instructor Mary Katherine Rose
“Through an international partnership, members of the Brock community have been busy travelling the world offering their expertise to developing nations.
A handful of volunteers have taken advantage of the University’s connection to Academics Without Borders (AWB), a non-governmental, Canadian organization of which Brock International Services has been a member since 2016. With success stories now under its belt, the University is hopeful more participants will soon follow.
Among the helping hands that have travelled abroad is Faculty of Education Instructor Mary Katherine Rose (MEd ’06), whose lifelong passion for global health and education drew her to AWB.”
Read more of this article about our recent volunteers from Brock University.
Centennial College becomes first college to join AWB’s Network
Academics Without Borders has welcomed Centennial College as the first college to join its Network of Canadian post-secondary institutions. Through its participation in the Network, Centennial now joins the ranks of 18 Canadian universities dedicated to building a better world for all.
AWB’s Network – Canada’s universities and colleges in support of global development – is a consortium of Canadian post-secondary institutions that support AWB’s mission, which is to work with volunteer academics to help developing countries build capacity at their post-secondary institutions to drive development and improve quality of life around the world.
“Academics Without Borders is extremely pleased to have Centennial College join its network of Canadian post-secondary institutions,” says Greg Moran, AWB’s Executive Director. “Centennial’s longstanding commitment and record of accomplishment in internationalization make it particularly welcome as the first college or polytechnic to join the Network.”
Greg adds, “Canada’s universities and colleges represent one of the strongest and most highly regarded higher education systems in the world. Through AWB, post-secondary institutions across the low- and middle-income regions of the world can now draw on the much-needed expertise and knowledge of volunteer expert faculty and professional staff from the full range of these remarkable Canadian institutions.”
Through its membership in the Network, Centennial will provide its faculty with the opportunity to propose projects for AWB support in conjunction with post-secondary partners in the developing world. These faculty members will also have special access to partnership opportunities provided directly by AWB through the organization’s existing relationships with institutions and countries across the globe.
“As an outward-looking college that has embraced internationalization, we’re very pleased to join Academics Without Borders in their mission to help developing nations improve their learning institutions,” says Ann Buller, President and CEO of Centennial College. “We are committed to the vision of transforming lives and communities through learning. To be able to deliver on that pledge in the world’s developing regions represents the natural progression of our work.”
Membership in the Network will also provide Centennial with enhanced recognition for its international work, as well as new resources to support and coordinate this work. By building capacity at post-secondary institutions across the developing world, Centennial and AWB look forward to changing lives both at home and abroad.
About Academics Without Borders
Academics Without Borders is a Canadian nonprofit that works with universities in the most disadvantaged countries building their capability to educate the professionals and leaders essential to the strong societies they justly desire. AWB does this by sending professional staff and academics who donate their time to work on projects that originate with its partner universities, reflecting the most pressing needs of their communities.
About Centennial College
Established in 1966, Centennial College serves the eastern portion of the greater Toronto area with five campuses and two satellite locations. Its record is one of exemplary teaching, innovative programming and extensive partnership building. The college enrolls 24,000 full-time students and 20,000 part-time learners annually, and is recognized as one of the most diverse public colleges in Canada. Centennial offers more than 250 diploma, degree and certificate programs in business, community and consumer services, engineering technology, health care, media arts and transportation.
How international faculty projects can change lives at home and abroad
“In a remote area of Nepal, an eight-year-old boy is carried into a tiny hospital by his grandparents. The boy has fallen from a height and sustained a complex fracture in his elbow. Treating the injury will require resetting and stabilizing bones, but this involves a specialized surgery and medical hardware not available to the only doctor in the area, whose hospital is hours away from the nearest city or specialist. Worse yet, the boy’s circulation has been impeded by the fracture, and without treatment, he will lose the use of his hand and forearm.
The doctor does what he can to set the bones and stabilize them, which he does by sedating the boy himself (there are no anesthesiologists where he works), setting the bones, and stabilizing the fracture with metal wiring, all while taking direction from an open textbook.
Incredibly, the surgery is a success. The boy will make a full recovery.
A week after the operation, Professor Karl Stobbe at McMaster University looks over post-operation x-rays from the case. Glancing over his shoulder, his colleague, an orthopedic surgeon, remarks, “That’s honestly as good a job as I could’ve done.”
It’s an incredible feat of medical resilience and resourcefulness that Stobbe says he has witnessed many times. For the past three years, Stobbe has been working with Nepal’s Patan Academy of Health Sciences to build the country’s capacity to train doctors for practice in rural areas, an effort that will have an enormous impact on the wellbeing of those living in these areas.”
Read more of this article about the work of AWB in Academica’s Today’s Top Ten in Higher Ed on March 27, 2019.
For a country to develop, so must its post-secondary institutions
“Higher education advocates across Canada and beyond will often claim that academics make an enormous impact on the world beyond the ivory tower, but skeptics are often quick to ask, “How, exactly?” Advocates might then point to social benefits such as advancements in medical technology or the fostering of an engaged democratic citizenry, but another benefit that they might wish to highlight is the impact that higher education is having in developing countries that are looking to build healthier, wealthier, and more just societies for all.
For Corrie Young, Associate Executive Director for Academics Without Borders, there are countless instances in which post-secondary institutions serve as a key vehicle for global development. ‘Take rapid urbanization happening in many countries’ says Young. ‘You need to think about how governments at multiple levels are going to try and address the challenges that come with a shift like that. First, you have to design and perform research that gives you accurate information on what is actually happening, then you need the expertise to turn that research into effective policy.'”
Read more of this article about the importance of AWB’s work in Academica’s Today’s Top Ten in Higher Ed on February 25, 2019.
The global problems that only academics can solve
“The greatest challenges of the 21st century will be global in nature, and so too will be the solutions. Fortunately, a growing group of academic experts based at institutions across Canada is collaborating with international partners around the world to build the capacity to solve these challenges.
These efforts have already had an enormous impact across the globe over the past decade, from building family medicine capacity in Guyana to creating a unified national university system in Rwanda, from designing programming on environmental governance in Tanzania to creating new opportunities for students with disabilities in Indonesia.”
Read more of this article about the importance of AWB’s work in Academica’s Today’s Top Ten in Higher Ed on February 13, 2019.
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AWB's ED Greg Moran calls for support for lower income countries to train health professional in @mtlgazette today https://t.co/5lpHy1zTnB #highered #globaldev
AWB's ED Greg Moran calls for support for lower income countries to train health professional in @mtlgazette today https://t.co/5lpHy1zTnB #highered #globaldev
