Having developed several campuses in China was my first learning experience in global finance as it took several years of navigation and legal assistance to sort through the regulations and financial systems to allow for the university to operate and legally repatriate funds back into the United States. I became a source of information to many of my peers for years. I also did some consulting with Saint Louis University for a partnership campus so they could expand into an area just outside Mumbai, India and that seemed to solidify my reputation into global world of higher education. Regardless, it was only recently that I have seen how an entity can come together to really make an substantial impact in the world in a manner in which I believe is the real benefit of how how higher education institutions should benefit global education. .
I recently had a conversation with the person that is demonstrating extraordinary leadership and interest in global higher education that is about providing opportunity to those that would never have thought it was possible. He was the founder of an independent, international university in Chittagong, Bangladesh that is a new Asian University that is dedicated to women and is seeking to educate a new generation of leaders in Asia. This university was originally seeded with the support of the Gates Foundation and has been finding external support all over the globe so it may admit students solely on the basis of merit, regardless of their family’s income level. Nearly all students are on full scholarship with many as the first in their family to attend university. They find these talented students in the worst of areas under the most difficult of circumstances. In war-torn Iraq, where hope is diminished beyond any imagination. Currently, over 25% of this institution’s graduates are moving into elite university graduate level programs under scholarship opportunities. Many are returning to their home countries and serving in their government and in corporate leadership roles.
The Asian University for Women also offers two pre-collegiate bridge programs called Access Academy and Pathways for Promise, as well as a three-year undergraduate program based in the liberal arts and sciences. The university is committed to graduating generations of women leaders who will tackle their countries’ social, economic, and political issues while collaborating across cultural, ethnic, and religious lines. This university currently has more than 800 students enrolled from 15 countries across Asia and the Middle East and has asked me to work with them on a short-term, interim basis, to finalize a loan structure of $90 million with the World Bank, so that they can start the phase I development of the expansion of their physical academic and residential facilities within the campus property.
It is such and honor to be able to contribute to such a project that offers hope and dreams through the gift of educational opportunities to these women that are able to go forth with inspiration of making positive differences in this world. God Bless everyone involved in this lofty project. David Garafola
