ASHESI UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION

Ashesi's mission is to train a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa; to cultivate within our students the critical thinking skills, concern for others and courage it will take to transform a continent. We seek to begin a movement to improve the quality of education in Africa. We founded a new type of rigorous African university: one designed to empower young Africans with the entrepreneurial skills and ethical foresight to be agents of change in their communities.

To address the deepest factors behind Africa's lack of economic progress -- the corruption endemic in the region, and dismal employment opportunities for the rapidly increasing African youth population -- Patrick Awuah, Ashesi's Founder and President developed an innovative curriculum to nurture ethics and instill a can-do, problem-solving attitude. Ashesi's curriculum combines a strong liberal arts core with practical majors in Business Administration, Computer Science, Engineering, and Management Information Systems, and a 4-year focus on ethical leadership development. The core curriculum teaches students to think critically and be problem solvers. Students explore the connections between fields of knowledge, to separate relevant information from the irrelevant, to question assumptions, and to reflect on the views of other people. The curriculum as a whole fosters a culture of ethics and concern for others. Ashesi's rigorous Honor Code, community service requirement, and intensive 4-year leadership seminar series weave ethics into all aspects of learning.

We believe that transformational education for home grown leadership needs to be available to students from diverse economic, ethnic, religious and national groups. We work hard to make this happen. Ashesi students come from 15 countries across Africa. Women make up 48% of students and 43% of students receive need-based financial aid.

Ashesi's major innovation is our curriculum, which is based on best practices from some of the top universities in the world but is designed to address the needs in an African context. Our curriculum places a great emphasis on applied learning, ethics, and entrepreneurship. Key elements of the Ashesi education include:

• A liberal arts core program that nurtures critical thinking & communications skills and encourages students to apply theory to practice through class projects and internships

• A community service program that ensures students get involved in developing solutions to problems in their communities

• A 4-year leadership seminar series asks students to engage issues of ethics, rule of law, wealth distribution and good governance in Africa

• A student honor code which requires students to be responsible for their own ethical behavior, and for reporting incidents of academic misconduct during examinations

• Internships at top companies in Ghana allow students to learn about local career opportunities, resulting in a very high local employment rate after graduation

• Senior projects encourage entrepreneurship among students by challenging them to create business plans, conduct meaningful research, or develop new products that will improve society

Ashesi University's academic program enables students not only to develop technical excellence in their professional fields but also to gain a deep sense of civic responsibility and a breadth of vision that enables them to navigate and lead in a changing world.

Ashesi has developed important relationships with other international organizations, adding local expertise to international best practices. Some examples:

• In 2002, Ashesi entered a ten-year $13 million partnership with The MasterCard Foundation. In 2016, The MasterCard Foundation renewed this partnership with an additional $25.5 million commitment. This partnership will empower us to recruit and award financial aid to bright students from across Africa.

• General Electric added Ashesi to its elite group of Executive Schools, which includes MIT and Cornell University. GE plans to recruit heavily from Ashesi and partner on the curriculum.

• Our curriculum was designed in collaboration with faculty at Swarthmore College, University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Washington.

• The University's business plan was devised through a partnership with the Clausen Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

• A robotics course was developed in collaboration with faculty and graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University.

• The Fulbright program has sent faculty from the US to strengthen and plan the expansion of academic life at Ashesi.

• Ashesi partnered with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) to co-develop a teaching workshop on social science research. The skills taught will empower African researchers to design research of publishable quality and to successfully design and apply for funding for research critical to determining local needs. The program was open to researchers from Ghana's private and public universities and was so successful, IDS is seeking funding to host it across Africa.

• Nokia chose Ashesi University to launch a new course for university students to develop mobile phone applications for use in emerging markets such as Africa. The new course was created in partnership with EPROM (Entrepreneurial Programming and Research on Mobiles).

• Swarthmore College and Ashesi co-developed classes on the African diaspora.

• Wilfrid Laurier University and Ashesi offer joint classes in Human Rights and Development.

• An international study abroad program was created in collaboration with New York University, Babson College, Ohio State University, Coe College and The Council for International Education Exchange.

• An African dance and music course was created in collaboration with the Noyam Institute in Accra.

As Ashesi grows, we expect these local and international interactions to play an even greater role in the Ashesi experience.

Over the past 17 years, Ashesi has established a reputation as a leader in undergraduate education in Africa, with an educational experience that fosters ethical leadership, an entrepreneurial mindset and the ability to solve complex problems. These qualities are what set Ashesi alumni apart.

At the heart of the Ashesi experience is our inclusive campus culture. Students come from 28 African countries to learn, live and innovate together. 48% are women, and 43% come from disadvantaged backgrounds. On campus, students join with faculty and leadership to engage in discussion, civic action, and connection under a shared mission to transform the African continent.

Now we are working to extend the Ashesi education to more young Africans by growing to 1,200 students—while maintaining and strengthening this unique campus culture. To serve more students, we must continue to expand our facilities and strengthen our scholarship program. To provide students with the highest-quality education, we must invest in faculty development. And to help scale Ashesi’s model, we must expand our idea-sharing platform, The Education Collaborative. Launched in 2017, the Collaborative brings together African university leaders and stakeholders to collaborate on best practices in teaching, management and administration.