Indiana University opens Global Gateway in Ghana
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Indiana University has opened one of its Global Gateway offices in Ghana, a move that makes the school the only U.S. public university to have such a presence on the continent of Africa.
The international gateway launched May 20 at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra. It joins similar IU offices in Bangkok, Beijing, Berlin, Mexico City and New Delhi.
“At Indiana University, we have ambitious goals for faculty to pursue transformational research with partners around the globe and for our students to have extraordinary educational experiences abroad,” IU President Pamela Whitten said in a news release. “The IU Ghana Gateway formalizes decades of IU engagement in the region and places us at the center of the world’s fastest-emerging economic hub.”
IU now has more international gateways than any other public university in the United States, the university said.
The gateways connect students with global partnerships, serve as embassies for IU researchers abroad and as proxy campuses for prospective international students, provide gathering spaces for international alumni, and become centers of cultural exchange between IU and its international partners, nongovernmental organizations and local governments.
The opening of the Ghana office comes at a formative time for both IU and Africa, the university said. In Africa, 70% of the population is younger than 30. For IU, the initiative aligns with its 2030 strategic plan to foster collaborations that strengthen Indiana and the rest of the world.
“Universities foster intercultural learning and competence, skills necessary for our students to thrive in a globalized world,” Hilary Kahn, IU interim vice president for international affairs, said. “Too often we are limited by geography to conversations that stop at our borders, but by committing to having a physical presence in Ghana, IU engages with rising social, economic and cultural leaders across Africa where they are. The Ghana Gateway will continue to connect students and scholars to global conversations and collective problem-solving on the African continent.”
Linguistics professor Samuel Obeng will serve as the IU Ghana Gateway’s academic director. Recognized for his contributions to the study of African language phonetics, he was inducted into the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences on May 20 following the gateway launch.
IU already has a host of existing collaborations in Africa, the university said, including a health care partnership with Moi University and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, a business entrepreneurship endeavor in Ethiopia and a joint effort with leaders of other universities to support higher education institutions across sub-Saharan Africa.