Purdue University/Kabul University
Purdue/Afghanistain
State:
Indiana
Country:
Afghanistan
Award Date:
2002
Award Amount:
$100,000.00
Cost Share:
$63,884.00
Other Funds:
$23,000.00
Other Partners:
Afghanistan Ministry of Higher Education; Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA); Kabul Polytechnic; Kabul Education University
The partnership between Purdue University and three Afghan institutions is establishing a rapid training capacity at universities in Kabul in order to generate an immediate flow of skilled workers and trainers into Afghanistan’s rebuilding effort, with a focus on agriculture, education, engineering, and technology. The partners have targeted their efforts on training in the use of distance learning (DL), and establishing four DL laboratories at three universities in Kabul. Four Kabul faculty members have been trained at Purdue in DL and curriculum development in agriculture and in computer maintainance; three additional Kabul faculty members have received training at Purdue’s School of Education in curriculum development and distance learning. Agricul-ture professors from Purdue have traveled to Afghanistan to work with the faculty on the agriculture curriculum and the research farm. Partners have assembled a draft proposal to modernize the curriculum into three tracks (crop science, animal science, and farm management) with a marketing/entrepreneurship component. Purdue has donated textbooks and an additional 60 computers (for a total of 100) to the Kabul computer laboratories and has established four laboratories.