January 20, 2022

Arizona State University's $25m initiative to reach 100m learners

A Arizona State University has recently announced their $25m online initiative to be carried out by the university’s Thunderbird School of Global Management. The accredited online Global Management and Entrepreneurship Certificate will help students in developing countries with basic business skills. The programme was created with the aim to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education. The aim is to reach 100m learners by the year 2030.

The $25 million donation came from Phoenix philanthropists Francis and Dionne Najafi. The initiative, also known as the Francis and Dionne Najafi 100 Million Learners Global Initiative, will be offered in 40 different languages, and will be of no cost to students. The first phase, scheduled to begin in April, will cater to students in Iran, Kenya, Mexico, Indonesia, Egypt, India, Senegal, Brazil, and Vietnam. In the first year the courses will be offered in native languages, which will then expand across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America by year two. By year four or earlier, the course will get expanded to Europe and Central Asia, with a total reach of 40 languages.

“…access to higher education and the need for equity and inclusion is one of a global scale” — ASU President Michael Crow

“One of the reasons Arizona State University is so pleased to have Thunderbird as part of our enterprise is because it is a school that has been focused on sustained prosperity worldwide for decades,” said Arizona State University president Michael Crow.

“Our lives were transformed by access to quality education at Thunderbird and we wanted to extend that same transformative experience to people around the world who lack access to quality education,” said Francis and Dionne Najafi. Speaking about the ambitious initiative the Director General and Dean of Thunderbird, Sanjeev Khagram, said “The Najafi Thunderbird Global Initiative is educational inclusion, innovation, and impact at a worldwide scale!”

At Thunderbird, our vision is a world of sustainable and equitable prosperity, and as part of Arizona State University – the #1 school for innovation seven years running – we measure success not by whom we exclude, but rather by whom we include, Khagram added.

Posted in News and tagged News, US, Arizona, Arizona State University, Higher Education
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