Bard College Receives U.S. Department of Education Grant in Support of New Global Partnership Project

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.––Bard College is the recipient of a two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education totaling $174,623 to support a new Global Partnership Project: Connecting International, Regional, and Language Studies. The College is one of 31 U.S. institutions of higher education to receive funding through the Department of Education’s Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Education program, which provides grants to plan, develop, and implement programs to strengthen and improve undergraduate instruction in international studies and foreign languages in the United States. 

“At a time when relations in these regions are volatile, our commitment to engaging with the world and developing educational partnerships, with institutions like St. Petersburg State University and Al-Quds University, is vital to the education of Bard’s undergraduates,” says Jonathan Becker, vice president and dean of international affairs and civic engagement.

Funding for the Global Partnership Project will allow Bard to develop a new interdisciplinary major in Global and International Studies (GIS) and to enhance opportunities for students to engage deeply in Arabic and Russian language studies, as well as Middle Eastern and Eurasian studies. The project will also unite students and faculty from partner institutions in Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and the Palestinian Territories in virtual classrooms with Bard students; expand study abroad offerings in the Middle East and Eurasia to include internship and civic engagement opportunities; and develop a series of cocurricular activities on campus and in the community that link the GIS program, Middle Eastern and Eurasian area studies, and the Arabic and the Russian language programs.

Bard College provides a global education for students from 65 countries and has emerged as a leader in the development of comprehensive international partnerships that provide a dual degree or dual credit. With partners throughout the United States and in Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Russia, the Palestinian Territories, and South Africa, the College has forged a series of innovative dual degree and dual credit programs, which are unique in their scope and ambition and have achieved groundbreaking educational reform.

About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, is an independent, nonsectarian, residential, coeducational college offering a four-year B.A. program in the liberal arts and sciences and a five-year B.A./B.S. degree in economics and finance. The Bard College Conservatory of Music offers a five-year program in which students pursue a dual degree—a B.Music and a B.A. in a field other than music—and offers an M.Music in vocal arts and in conducting. Bard also bestows an M.Music degree at Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bard and its affiliated institutions also grant the following degrees: A.A. at Bard High School Early College, a public school with campuses in New York City, Cleveland, and Newark, New Jersey; A.A. and B.A. at Bard College at Simon’s Rock: The Early College, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and through the Bard Prison Initiative at six correctional institutions in New York State; M.A. in curatorial studies, M.S. in economic theory and policy, and M.S. in environmental policy and in climate science and policy at the Annandale campus; M.F.A. and M.A.T. at multiple campuses; M.B.A. in sustainability in New York City; and M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in the decorative arts, design history, and material culture at the Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan. Internationally, Bard confers dual B.A. degrees at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, Russia (Smolny College); American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan; and Bard College Berlin: A Liberal Arts University; as well as dual B.A. and M.A.T. degrees at Al-Quds University in the West Bank.

Bard offers nearly 50 academic programs in four divisions. Total enrollment for Bard College and its affiliates is approximately 5,000 students. The undergraduate College has an enrollment of more than 1,900 and a student-to-faculty ratio of 10:1. For more information about Bard College, visit www.bard.edu.

This event was last updated on 10-15-2014

Back to Top