Programs
Teacher Education Institute
The flagship program of UME, the Teacher Education Institute (TEI) is an intensive month-long professional development and cultural exchange course that takes place annually during the summer. TEI participants are secondary school educators from the MENA region. The program curriculum focuses on innovative teaching methodologies, including the use of technology in classrooms, conflict and cooperation in schools, cross-cultural education, civic education, and service learning.
Civic Engagement Workshop
The Civic Engagement Workshop (CEW) is a week-long follow-on program for the TEI which unites alumni from one MENA country with American high school teachers. The workshop furthers the professional development of both MENA-region and US teachers, and promotes regional and international collaboration on projects, events and teaching strategies. The CEW also serves a crucial role as a forum for TEI alumni to develop inclusive, community-oriented after-school activities for their students. UME ran CEWs in Morocco in 2006 and Jordan in 2007.
Collaborative Art Initiative
The Collaborative Art Initiative (CAI) is a three-phase educational and cultural exchange program which will take place during 2008 and 2009 in the U.S., Jordan, and Morocco. The CAI will bring together teachers, youth leaders, and young people in the spirit of artistic expression to create sacred public spaces where mindful interaction, open dialogue, and collaboration become possible and tangible. The CAI is based on the principles of Professor Mark Cooper's book, Making Art Together.
Seminar on Identity and Education
UME ran the Seminar on Identity and Education Across the Mediterranean (IDEAmed) seminar in Sevilla, Spain in 2006. The program convened a group of secondary school teachers from across the Mediterranean region to explore and deepen their understanding of identity and its relation to school culture, classroom practice, pedagogy and curriculum. In addition to attending presentations and workshops, each participant developed an educational activity for their students touching on issues such as class, religion, gender, and ethnic and cultural narratives.
Education Leadership Institute
UME held the Education Leadership Initiative (ELI) in 2004 in Toledo, Spain. The ELI focused on the systemic challenges in K-12 education in the Middle East and North Africa. The two-week program brought together a select group of alumni of the 1999-2004 Teacher Education Institutes (TEI) to collectively learn to tap the potential of organized, collective action and negotiation techniques, and to facilitate region-wide systemic changes in K-12 education.
Institute in Governance, Public Policy, and Civil Society
Institutes in Governance, Public Policy, and Civil Society (IGPC) have taken place in Spain in 2002 and 2003. Goals for the IGPC included gaining a better understanding of the role of civil society in promoting good governance and creating a network to nurture and sustain the relationships between the participants of the Institute and strengthen cooperation among their organizations and institutions.
Institute in Sustainable Development Policies
The Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD), which UME held in Casablanca, Morocco in 2000, was an interdisciplinary program designed to address the economics and politics of sustainable development at the local, national, regional, and global levels in the Middle East and North Africa. Taught by leading academics from institutions in the United States, Europe, and the MENA region, the ISD explored the most pressing sustainability issues facing the MENA region, including water management, renewable energy, industrial ecology, and sustainable agriculture.
The University for Peace (UPEACE) is an intergovernmental organization with university status, established by treaty at the United Nations General Assembly in 1980 and having its main campus in Costa Rica. Its stated mission is "to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations."
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal to improve intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills. Via the program, competitively-selected American citizens including students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists, and artists may receive scholarships or grants to study, conduct research, teach, or exercise their talents abroad; and citizens of other countries may qualify to do the same in the United States. The program was founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946 and is considered to be one of the most widely recognized and prestigious scholarships in the world. The program provides approximately 8,000 grants annually – roughly 1,600 to U.S. students, 1,200 to U.S. scholars, 4,000 to foreign students, 900 to foreign visiting scholars, and several hundred to teachers and professionals.
University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Princess Anne, Maryland. It is part of the University System of Maryland. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Garland Independent School District is a public school district with its headquarters in the Harris Hill Administration Building in Garland, Texas, United States. Garland ISD extends from the Dallas city limits, northeast to the county line and serves parts of the communities of Garland, Rowlett, and Sachse. Small portions of Dallas and Wylie are served by Garland ISD.
International education refers to a dynamic concept that involves a journey or movement of people, minds, or ideas across political and cultural frontiers. It is facilitated by the globalization phenomenon, which increasingly erases the constraints of geography on economic, social and cultural arrangements. The concept involves a broad range of learning, covering, for instance, formal education and informal learning. It could also involve a reorientation of academic outlook such as the pursuit of "worldmindedness" as a goal so that a school or its academic focus is considered international. For example, the National Association of State Universities prescribes the adoption of "proper education" that reflects the full range of international, social, political, cultural, and economic dialogue. International educators are responsible for "designing, managing, and facilitating programs and activities that help participants to appropriately, effectively, and ethically engage in interactions with culturally diverse people and ideas."
MENA, an acronym in the English language, refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around the Middle East and North Africa. It is also known as WANA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as Western Asia. As a regional identifier, MENA is often used in academia, military planning, disaster relief, media planning, and business writing. Moreover, the region shares a number of cultural, economic, and environmental similarities across its comprising countries; for example, some of the most extreme impacts of climate change will be felt in MENA.
The history of education in Africa can be roughly divided into pre- and post- colonial periods. Since the introduction of formal education to Africa by European colonists, African education, particularly in West and Central Africa, is characterised by both traditional African teachings and European-style schooling systems. The state of education reflects not only the effects of colonialism, but instability resulting from and exacerbated by armed conflicts in many regions of Africa as well as fallout from humanitarian crises such as famine, lack of drinking water, and outbreaks of diseases such as malaria and Ebola, among others. Although the quality of education and the quantity of well-equipped schools and teachers has steadily increased since the onset of the colonial period, there are still evident numerous inequalities in the existing educational systems based on region, economic status, and gender.
Sister Cities International (SCI) is a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network that creates and strengthens partnerships between communities in the United States and those in other countries, particularly through the establishment of "sister cities"—broad, long-term agreements formally recognized by civic leaders. Its mission is to "build global cooperation at the municipal level, promote cultural understanding and stimulate economic development". A total of 1,800 cities, states, and counties are partnered in 138 countries worldwide.
The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) is an academic studies and research institute located at Kibbutz Ketura on the Israeli side of the Arava Valley. Under the motto that "nature knows no borders", AIES seeks to train future leaders of the Middle East in environmental issues so that they will be able to cooperate in solving regional environmental problems. The Arava is a sparsely populated desert valley that connects the Dead Sea region with the Red Sea, and is part of the Jordan Rift Valley. Between the Dead Sea and the cities of Eilat and Aqaba, the Arava forms the border between Israel and Jordan.
The Experiment in International Living, or The Experiment, is a worldwide program offering homestays, language, arts, community service, ecological adventure, culinary, and regional and cultural exploration programs of international cross-cultural education for high school students. It is administered by World Learning, a non-profit, international development and education organization based in Brattleboro, Vermont, in the United States.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has emphasized education's importance as a fundamental human right and a necessary element of development. Education encompasses the scope of social values, morality, tradition, religion, politics and history. It is the acquired body of knowledge that equips the emerging labor force with the necessary skills to ensure its active participation in economic development. The acquisition of literacy, arithmetic, and problem-solving skills improves the value and efficiency of labor. It creates a skilled and intellectually flexible labor force through training, expertise, and academic credentials. A professional working force enhances the quality of a nation's economic productivity and guarantees its suitability for global market competitiveness. According to a recent research report by the United Nations Population Fund, countries such as Egypt, Jordan, and Algeria have invested in family planning, healthcare, and education and have subsequently experienced more rapid economic development than the countries that were reluctant to invest in social development programs.
Indian Institute of Management Shillong is a public, fully autonomous management institute in the city of Shillong, Meghalaya. It was the seventh Indian Institute of Management to be established in India.
The education system in Morocco comprises pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary levels. School education is supervised by the Ministry of National Education, with considerable devolution to the regional level. Higher education falls under the Ministry of Higher Education and Executive Training.
Established in 2000, the Near East South Asia (NESA) Center for Strategic Studies is a U.S. Department of Defense institution for building relationships and understanding in the NESA region. The NESA Center supports the theater security cooperation effort of four Regional Combatant Commands: United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM), United States European Command (USEUCOM), and United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) and is one of five regional centers that fall under the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. With its 21st Century security and academic focus, the NESA Center seeks to build on the strong multilateral relationships between the U.S government and its allies in the region; the Near East and South and Central Asian regional governments and their armed forces, by focusing on broader multilateral approaches and capacity building to address regional security issues and concerns. The NESA Center is located at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, DC.
Budapest Business School (BBS) is a Private business school specializing in business studies and social sciences located in Budapest, Hungary. It was founded in 1857 by merchants and bankers of Austria-Hungary in order to establish the economic vocational training of higher education in the empire and in Central Europe. It is the oldest public business school in the world, and second oldest among all business schools, after only the ESCP.
The International Institute for Languages and Cultures, Fès, Morocco (INLAC) is a private institute for teaching and learning Arabic, located in the old city (medina) of Fez. It offers undergraduate and graduate credit programs.
INJAZ Al-Arab is a non-profit organization for education and training in workforce readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship across the Arab World. INJAZ Al-Arab is the Regional Operating Center of JA Worldwide (JAW), one of the largest global non-governmental organizations dedicated to addressing fundamental social and economic challenges faced by young people. INJAZ Al-Arab is also an active participant in the United Nations Global Compact. Over 3.7 million students have participated in a broad base of entrepreneurship training opportunities aimed at developing basic business skills to start and run their own businesses while obtaining soft skills increasingly demanded by the private sector. Since its inception, INJAZ Al-Arab has built a network of over 88,000 classroom volunteers, who are leaders from the corporate world. INJAZ Al-Arab has a Regional Board of Directors, which comprises 24 executives that manage some companies and institutions, as well as a team of staff, led by Akef Aqrabawi, President and CEO of the Middle East/North Africa for JA Worldwide,
Nuqat (نقاط) is a nonprofit organisation based in Kuwait that focuses on cultural development in the region. What was a small consortium in 2009 teaching typography design, has transformed into an internationally recognised organisation that engages thousands of eager learners. Diverse participants from all over the world join Nuqat throughout the year to discuss design, entrepreneurship, architecture, fine arts, technology, culture and every aspect of life that creativity permeates.
The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) is a nonprofit organization that promotes community-designed initiatives for sustainable agriculture, women’s and youth empowerment, education, health, and capacity-building in Morocco. It is headquartered in Morocco.
Taejon Christian International School (TCIS) is a Pre-K to Grade 12 international school located in an area known as Techno Valley, a neighborhood in the northern part of Daejeon, South Korea. TCIS is a Three-Programme IB World School and provides boarding care through on-campus dormitory facilities. The school accepts foreign families living locally for work, families living abroad and looking for education in Korea, and local Korean families with connections to foreign culture and education abroad. Taejon Christian International School also plays a partnership role in globalization efforts in the city of Daejeon.
