BBA/MBA University Partnership between University of Kentucky and Nangarhar University

The University of Kentucky (UKY) will develop a partnership with NU to enhance the existing BBA curriculum and develop the newly established MBA curriculum in conjunction with increasing the pedagogical and research skill of the Faculty of Economics. UKY and NU will identify measurable competencies and learning outcomes for NU MBA and BBA programs. Faculty, students, alumni, and employers of NU graduates will participate in developing outcomes to ensure that the programs meet international, national, and local standards and labor market and development needs. Throughout the activities, the team will ensure that gender inclusiveness is reflected in both the pedagogical development as well as the participation in grant activities. In light of fluctuating security concerns, UKY will maintain maximum flexibility to respond to needed changes in locales for training and all activities. Following a Kick-Off Workshop in Jalalabad, the program will commence with a Tuning Workshop at the start of the grant. The Tuning workshop will provide the foundation for the goals and competencies that the NU faculty seeks to establish for their programs. Through these initial activities, the partnership will identify development needs to guide the design of faculty workshops and seminars that UKY will create. Throughout the life of the grant, we will combine in country and third country trainings and use digital communication to maintain activities throughout the academic year which will build towards the achievement of the goals and competencies established in the Tuning Workshop. Beginning in Fall 2016, UKY will work with Pakistan based faculty, previously trained by UKY, to engage in face to face consultations on class and curriculum development. Critically, these faculty will provide classroom observation at NU and give feedback to both NU and UKY. Additionally, UKY faculty will work via video and email throughout the academic year on team teaching and classroom observation. The classroom observation and team teaching activities will continue throughout the academic semesters at NU. 10-16 faculty members from NU will participate in two intensive one-week training workshops (Fall 2016 (10 participants) and Summer 2017 (16 participants)) to review and revise curriculum for the BBA and design the curriculum for the MBA and to develop policy and evaluation standards for faculty and students. All evaluation standards will be gender neutral and reflect the student and teachers’ code of conduct. The 2016 workshop will focus on a Tuning process described below, the 2017 workshop will concentrate on content development for the curriculum of the BBA and MBA programs. The Fall 2016 workshop is planned for New Delhi while the summer 2017 workshop is planned for Islamabad. In each year of the program, six NU faculty members will participate in intensive six day training at a regional location (Dubai). During this time, faculty will receive training in course design, pedagogy and content development with UKY faculty and with the UKY Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT). This training will include course construction, classroom management, and pedagogy, and each participant will redesign one course. A second workshop will prepare participants to conduct similar workshops for their colleagues. Finally, seminars will address specific areas of business research relevant to the participating NU faculty and each participant will work to design a research proposal to be conducted in Afghanistan. The content areas will rotate across the business disciplines. In January 2017, we will focus on Accounting and Management. In January 2018, we will focus on Economics, Finance and Marketing. Through a combination of regional and Afghanistan training our project will accomplish the following: - The Economics Faculty at NU will develop upgraded curriculum for the BBA and to be established MBA system reflecting gender inclusiveness and the needs of the work force in Afghanistan. - NU will develop and revise policy documents for the BBA and MBA program which includes faculty development and learning assessment procedures. All will be gender sensitized. - 16 NU faculty will gain significantly enhanced research skills and will prepare and begin a project proposal working with UKY faculty. - 16 NU faculty will gain significantly enhanced teaching skills and teach revised classes, while mentored by UKY faculty.