AU Alumni Update

January 2006

 

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

ABTI-American University of Nigeria (AAUN) Receives MacArthur Grant

AAUN Reception at AU

AU reception for visiting AAUN deans (l–r): Adeyinka Cynthia Adesioye, assistant to the director, D.C. office, AAUN; Muhammadou Kah, dean, School of IT, AAUN; Jim Garofalo, vice president of academic affairs, AAUN; Robert Pastor, VP of international affairs, AU; Patrick Ukata, director, D.C. office, AAUN; and Michael Smith, dean, School of Arts and Sciences, AAUN.   photo by Bill Petros

AU's partner university in Nigeria, AAUN, has quickly transformed from a dream to actual buildings and students since signing a five-year management consultancy agreement with AU in January 2004. Located in Yola and supported by His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria's vice president, AAUN is the country's first American-style private university.

Just four months after welcoming its first class of students, AAUN received a generous grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in December 2005. The grant will enable AAUN to establish an information technology hub that provides training for faculty in the use of instructional technologies and for students to become tech tutors. Equipped with new hardware and software and featuring wireless connectivity, the hub will house three dozen networked computers.

AAUN seeks to be a catalyst for change in Nigeria and the region. To that end, the hub is the first phase of a larger plan that will lead to satellite hubs at secondary schools, businesses, and other African universities. Nearly 40 percent of AAUN's inaugural class wants to major in IT. All AAUN students receive a laptop computer and training in IT. Dr. Muhammadou Kah is the dean of AAUN's School of IT and principal investigator for the hub project.

For more information, visit www.abti-american.edu.ng

-Meegan McVay

Back to newsletter