Reporter's Notebook: Higher Education Meets International Development

Beth McMurtrie writes, in the Chronicle: (Requires a subscription or purchase of a Web pass for access.)

Much of this year's Higher Education for Development conference, which wraps up its annual meeting here today, has revolved around people explaining what they have done to promote social and economic development around the globe. That, after all, is the purpose of the group, which provides short-term grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development to projects run jointly by universities in America and abroad.

But while the theme was predictable, the range of examples was not. In Qatar, where the government is heavily promoting improvements in higher education, a university is building a journalism program to create an informed citizenry. In Ethiopia, where the government has had an adversarial relationship with the press, a university is creating a journalism program despite a lack of government support.