Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management will use a 25 million US dollar donation to offer students worldwide a free, accredited online global management and entrepreneurship certificate.
The donation, made by the Francis and Dionne Najafi Global Initiative, would allow the university to educate and empower 100 million learners by 2030.
“Through this, Thunderbird will offer an accredited online Global Management and Entrepreneurship Certificate, consisting of five world-class courses in 40 different languages,” said Arizona State University in a statement.
It is estimated that 70% will be women and young women.
In speaking about the donation, Thunderbird alums F. Francis Najafi and his wife, Dionne Najafi, said: “Our lives were transformed by access to quality education at Thunderbird and we wanted to extend that same transformative experience to people around the world who lack access to quality education.”
The Global Initiative aims to reach learners in Iran, Kenya, Mexico, Indonesia, Egypt, India, Senegal, Brazil, and Vietnam in their native languages in year one. By year two, the programme will be expanded across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America to at least 25 languages.
By year four or earlier, the Global Initiative will have expanded to Europe and Central Asia and 40 total languages. Eventually, the initiative will be available for learners worldwide, said the statement.
The first course will launch on April 8, 2022. Subsequent courses and languages will roll out continuously thereafter.
The certificate will be conducted online; it consists of five courses taught by Thunderbird’s world-renowned faculty. The courses include:
These courses will be offered in 40 different languages. The certificate will be covered by full scholarships and thus, come at no cost to students.
The learners in the Francis and Dionne Najafi Global Initiative will receive a badge for each course they complete and a 15-unit accredited certificate upon successful completion of all five courses.
They will gain 21st century skill sets to catapult their professional careers, and have an almost limitless number of lifelong learning options and alternative educational pathways through Thunderbird and ASU, or will be able to transfer the credits to other universities worldwide.
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