WASHINGTON, DC (August 13, 2008) – Higher Education for Development (HED) is pleased to announce a new partnership between the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pristina in Kosovo to better prepare graduate students to meet workforce demands in telecommunications upon graduation.
HED is awarding $450,000 to the partners with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Kosovo Mission to establish a telecommunications program based on experiential learning at the University of Pristina. The award is intended to make the newly independent state of Kosovo competitive and interconnected to the global economy by strengthening its workforce capacity in telecommunications.
The partners will increase the University of Pristina’s Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering capacity through curriculum revision, instructional expertise, telecommunications-related materials, and hands-on laboratory experiences to supplement classroom instruction. The partners and faculty will collaborate with the private sector to develop a rigorous telecommunications curriculum that addresses the changing needs of the telecommunications industry in Kosovo.
This collaborative partnership supports economic and social development with funding support by USAID's Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade/Office of Education (EGAT/ED), which mobilizes the expertise and resources of higher education institutions to address critical development challenges. For more information about how USAID has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years, please visit http://www.usaid.gov.
Higher Education for Development (HED) engages higher education institutions in the United States and abroad to advance social and economic development through human and institutional capacity building. Since 1997, HED has managed more than 300 higher education partnerships in 60 countries. For more information about HED, visit http://www.HEDprogram.org.
###