New Open Society University Network aims to reach students who need it the most

George Soros announced the launch of a new university network at the 2020 World Economic Forum Meeting in Davos. The Open Society University Network (OSUN) aims to prepare students around the world for global challenges. Mr. Soros is endowing the academic network he has created with one billion dollars ($1 billion) and asking other philanthropists to contribute.  Over the past 30 years, Soros has given more than $32 billion to education and social justice causes. 

“We are looking for farsighted partner institutions who feel a responsibility for the future of our civilization, people who are inspired by the goals of OSUN and want to participate in its realization,”  he said in a statement. 

When OSUN begins this year, it will stretch from Bangladesh and Central Asia to the Palestinian territories, from South Africa to Colombia, and from leading universities and research institutes in Europe and the United States to  Syrian and Somali refugee camps.

The Central European University and Bard College are co-founding OSUN, with the support of George Soros and the Open Society Foundations, and will run the network.  They will collaborate closely with a wide range of institutions, including universities, such as the American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan, Arizona State University, Ashesi University in Ghana,, BRAC University in Bangladesh, Fulbright University of Vietnam, Sciences Po in Paris, SOAS and Birkbeck: University of London, and think tanks and research institutions, including the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York, Chatham House in London, the Institute for New Economic Thinking in New York and Oxford, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna, and the Rift Valley Institute in Kenya.

OSUN will offer taught network courses and joint degree programs and bring students and faculty from different countries together with in-person and online discussions. The network aims to reach the students who need it the most and to promote the values of an open society – including free expression and diversity of beliefs.

Mr. Soros said: “I believe our best hope lies in access to an education that reinforces the autonomy of the individual by cultivating critical thinking and emphasizing academic freedom. I consider the Open Society University Network to be the most important and enduring project of my life and I should like to see it implemented while I am still around”.

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