The U.S. Agency for International Development has given Georgia State University a $50,000 grant to help a West African university plot its academic future.

Georgia State will develop a five-year strategic plan for business, management and economics programs at the International University of Grand-Bassam in Cote d’Ivoire.

Higher Education for Development, an international educational organization that works closely with USAID, awarded 20 of the grants to help fund growing partnerships between American and African universities.

More than 300 universities applied. No other Georgia universities were awarded grants.

Georgia State and the International University have worked together since 1994, but political uprisings delayed the relationship’s progress.  Since 1998, many faculty and student exchanges have taken place.

The Cote d’Ivoire school is the first English-language university in the country modeled after the U.S. higher education system, according to the Georgia State Office of International Affairs. 

With the grant, officials hope to complete a four-year undergraduate curriculum and develop graduate programs in business and public administration with the goal of training leaders who can help the local economy prosper.

“IUGB’s core objective is to build human capital for regional economic development.  We intend to produce qualified and skilled personnel who are trained in problem solving and intercultural cooperation,” said Saliou Torre, president of the International University, at its first board meeting in the city of Grand-Bassam.

The International University currently has 150 students and hopes to double that number this year with Georgia State’s help.

The $50,000 grant is small compared to other grants Higher Education for Development gave to Georgia State at the end of 2008.

The university won $2.1 million for a variety of projects, including $1.5 million to develop an executive MBA program at the University of Alexandria in Egypt and $400,000 for a partnership with Cairo University.

Georgia State also got $250,000 to help develop English language teaching curricula at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional of Mexico.

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