Exchange Alumna Creates Path for Environmental Studies
Gulheyran Rahimova, Head of International Academic Education Programs at Baku State University, drew upon her experience in the USAID-funded Community Connections program to create a partnership with Jackson State University. In September, Ms. Rahimova and nine other university administrators from across Azerbaijan traveled to Mississippi on the “Improving the Educational Environment” exchange, as a part of the Community Connections program. The exchange introduced Ms. Rahimova and her fellow participants to ways in which US colleges and universities maintain the quality of their programs by making their curricula relevant to the marketplace, partnering with the private sector to remain on the cutting edge of industry and involving students into university decision-making to ensure that their educational and professional needs are met.
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| Participants in the USAID Community Connections “Improving the Educational Environment” exchange program traveled from Baku State University to Jackson State University to learn about building an environmental studies department |
The partnership between the two universities will draw upon all of these objectives to develop an interdisciplinary environmental studies department at Baku State University. The new department will utilize faculty from the university’s biology, chemistry and geography departments and, according to Ms. Rahimova, hopes to have a link with Azerbaijan’s Medical University in the future. To increase the department’s community ties, it will also partner with a non-governmental organization, the Environmental Physics and Chemistry Center, which will offer student internships. At the same time, the Baku State University and the Environmental Physics and Chemistry Center, with the assistance of student-interns, will collaboratively conduct research to meet the needs of Azerbaijan’s environmental NGOs, government and rapidly developing energy (oil) sector. An intended result is that the partnership will help the country develop environmentally-friendly policies, business and development initiatives.
To ensure the success of Baku State University’s program, Jackson State University has proposed share its expertise, information and experience through the implementation of cooperative academic and research activities involving faculty and students. More importantly, they will provide Baku State University with their own experience in shaping the environmental studies department’s activities to support the students’ professional needs, while also providing services for the benefit of the wider community.
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