The University of Waterloo is thrilled to announce that it is joining the Academics Without Borders (AWB) Network of Canadian universities and colleges as of 2022. This exciting membership will provide Waterloo with the opportunity to be engaged in advancing the capacity and quality of higher education globally.
Academics Without Borders supports higher education institutions in low and middle-income countries by providing volunteer expertise on capacity-building projects. The structure of its partnerships ensures that the projects come from these institutions, matching them with volunteer faculty and staff that best meet the needs of a given project. Members of the AWB Network are committed to supporting higher education in less privileged parts of the world, with the understanding that higher education plays a critical role in global development.
Professor Charmaine Dean, vice-president, research and international, notes that:
“We are extremely proud to become a member of the AWB Network, and to contribute to their mission of assisting people in the developing world to build up their higher education institutions. Education is key to flourishing societies, and, through our membership, the University of Waterloo will be able to contribute to expanding and improving higher education programs, while also supporting the creation of new endeavours for positive global development.”
Professor Ian Rowlands, associate vice-president, international reinforces this sentiment:
“At Waterloo, we are excited by the opportunities for exchange of knowledge and understanding that will arise in the global collaborations to come from this membership, among many other aspects. Working with Academics Without Borders will undoubtedly create opportunities for our community to take away valuable experiences that will not only support professionals developing institutions abroad, but also those working to improve higher education at home. We are looking forward to how this membership will support the betterment of higher education globally, in addition to the ways in which it will broaden our own horizons.”
Waterloo’s membership in the AWB Network will contribute to enriching and advancing a number of Waterloo’s strategic priorities, namely fostering a connected and supportive community, and broadening engagement with international communities. Further, this membership will support the university’s international strategic direction by enabling an impactful global presence that is centred on global collaboration and internationalization. Through this opportunity, members of the University of Waterloo community will be given the chance to advance sustainability in global higher education by sharing their expertise developed at Waterloo and elsewhere, in order to contribute to higher education capacity at institutions of the Global South.
