Positioning for the Possible: Investing in Education Reform in New Mexico

At the beginning of 2010, the New Mexico Association of Grantmakers (NMAG ) asked Chris Sturgis of MetisNet to explore ways in which philanthropic investments could be structured to lead to improved student achievement and to produce a more effective public education system. This paper is designed to provoke discussion among funders and educational leadership to discover ways to maximize the benefits of philanthropic investments in New Mexico

Linking Higher Education and Social Change

More than four thousand stories could be told about the remarkable individuals who received fellowships under the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP) between 2001 and 2010. Over the decade, the program enabled 4,314 emerging social justice leaders from Asia, Russia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America to pursue advanced degrees at more than 600 universities in almost 50 countries. By April 2013, nearly 4,000 Fellows had completed their fellowships, receiving degrees in development-related fields ranging from social and environmental science to the arts. A survey done in early 2012 showed that 82 percent of more than 3,300 former Fellows were working in their home countries to improve the lives and livelihoods of those around them, while many of the rest were studying for additional advanced degrees or working in international organizations. The final group of Fellows enrolled in universities around the world will complete their fellowships by the end of 2013.In 2001, the Ford Foundation funded IFP with a $280 million grant, the largest single donation in the Foundation's history. The program was intended to provide graduate fellowships to individuals in countries outside the United States where the Foundation had grant-making programs. In 2006, the Foundation pledged up to$75 million in additional funds, allowing IFP to award more than 800 fellowships beyond its original projections. As extraordinary as the level and duration of funding, though, was IFP's singular premise: that extending higher education opportunities to leaders from marginalized communities would help further social justice in some of the world's poorest and most unequal countries. If successful, IFP would advance the Ford Foundation's mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation and advance human achievement. It would decisively demonstrate that an international scholarship program could help build leadership for social justice and thus contribute to broader social change.In striving toward its ambitious goals, the program would transform a traditional mechanism -- an individual fellowship program for graduate degree study -- into a powerful tool for reversing discrimination and reducing long-standing inequalities in higher education and in societies at large. This report is the story of that transformation

The Global University: The Role of Senior Managers

Contributors address the role of senior managers in relation to internationalisation, globalisation, and sustainable development and share how these often overlapping challenges can be addressed. Consideration has been given to a range of potentially competing demands including the relationship between what Paul Luker describes as the 'core mission and values of HE' and what Caruana and Hanstock describe as 'marketisation discourse'. The Global University: The Role of Senior Manager is written by higher education institution senior managers, for HEI senior managers. Supported by HEFCE Leadership, Governance and Management Funding, 'The Global University: the role of senior managers' is a companion publication to 'The Global University: the role of the curriculum'. Many of the contributors are regarded as critical champions of internationalisation in the UK as well as thoughtful strategists in the process of affecting sustainable university-wide change. To provide further food for thought, in addition to the UK contributions, a case study on university-wide approaches to the development of global citizens at the University of British Columbia and a perspective on the barriers affecting the process of internationalisation in Latin American Universities have also been included. Contributors address key concepts from a variety of perspectives and what will quickly become apparent is that the terms are not always translated in quite the same way (a way of seeing is also a way of not seeing) but in spite of this, collectively, considerable insight for moving the agenda forward is provided. At the very least, the publication will serve to inspire debate on what should constitute the vision, mission and values of a global university, within the context of global society. Given the global footprint of universities and the ability of our graduates to influence change in global society, the publication maintains that universities cannot ignore their corporate and social responsibilities: senior managers have a critical role to play as leaders of this agenda and of change that results in positive benefits for a wider stakeholder group

The ‘Brain Drain’ Academic and Skilled Migration to the UK and its Impacts on Africa

In December 2004 the Association of University Teachers and the College and Lecturers Union NATFHE jointly commissioned research to review some of the literature on ‘the Brain Drain’ with a specific emphasis on developing countries in Africa and on academic labour in the UK. This report is the culmination of that research. The project aimed to review some of the available literature on the ‘Brain Drain’, to locate this in debates and contemporary approaches to international development and to consider especially the impact of the Brain Drain on Africa, where possible drawing reference to the impact on higher education. The report also considers the scale of migration to work in UK higher education and suggests ways in which AUT/NATFHE might work together and with others to offset the impact of Brain Drain factors and to build the capacity of higher education, and those working in it, in developing countries. Migration is an emotive issue and debate in this country is often shaped by populist and right-wing arguments, sometimes with racist and xenophobic undertones. This project aimed to develop a more progressive approach to the debate on migration, explicitly addressing the motivations behind migration decisions. This project was shaped by a background understanding that the UK undoubtedly benefits enormously from skilled labour migration, economically, socially and culturally. However, the project is also shaped by a concern to ensure that individual choices to migrate are taken freely, not as a result of political repression, a lack of life chances or vocational opportunities. The project also aimed to assess the extent to which skilled labour migration, and the unequal relationships between rich and developing countries which drives it, is further embedding that inequality. Failing to address these issues, risks leaving the debate on migration to those that seek to use the issue to generate a regressive and dangerous politics of fear and difference

Foundation to Promote Scholarship and Teaching 2012-2013 Awards

Proposal abstracts of 2012-2013 award recipients in a wide range of disciplinary areas

Worldwide Workshop on Youth Involvement as a Strategy for Social, Economic and Democratic Development

Summarizes January 2000 discussions on building capacity in the field of youth service. Explores connections with social capital, economic productivity, adolescent development, marginalized youth, civic engagement, and policy. Includes country summaries

Kresge Foundation 2010-2011 Annual Report

Contains an introduction to Kresge's strategy; board chair's letter; president's letter; foundation timeline; program information; grant summary, including geographic distribution; grants lists; financial summary; and lists of board members and staff

Influence of regional, national and sub-national HDRs

This review highlights some achievements by regional, national and sub-national Human development Reports (HDRs) in influencing policy debate. Examining a sample of regional, national and sub-national HDRs released over the past 18 years, one concludes that several HDRs influenced the application of the human development concept and measurement to policy analysis at the national level. For the purpose of this exercise, few typologies of HDR influence have been identified, such as the national application of the human development paradigm; the contribution to the human development debate on specific themes; the development of national capacity for policy formulation and assessment; the revision of national policies and budget allocations according to human development priorities; extensive media attention generated by some reports; and the introduction of human development materials in national education curricula in developing countries. The paper dedicates a section to each category, providing examples from HDRs to illustrate the type of influence.National Human Development Reports, Influence, Policy, Capacity Development