| About IUGB | Higher Education Partnership
A HIGHER EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP IS BORN
The impetus for the International University of Grand-Bassam came more than a decade ago, when the government of Côte d’Ivoire began to look
at ways to reform its higher education system to offer more of its citizens and those of the West African sub-region access to higher education
opportunities.
An important first step was to team up with Georgia State University in Atlan, Goergio. In 1994 "Project Link" was initiated to facilitate faculty and student
exchange and teacher training, and to enhance academic programs in business, human resources development and education. Through Project Link, relationships were
established with several higher education institutions in Côte d’Ivoire such as Ecole Normale Supérieure, the University of Cocody and the National
Polytechnic Institute.
Building on the experience of Project Link, in 1998 Côte d’Ivoire and Georgia State signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work on establising an
International University in Côte d’Ivoire modeled on the American style of higher education.
Despite political challenges in Côte d’Ivoire in 1999 and 2000, Georgia State and the Agency for Education and Development (AED), a non-governmental
organization in Côte d’Ivoire established to sponsor and raise funds for the new institution, continued working together.
In 2004-2005, the Côte d’Ivoire/Georgia State University partnership celebrated important milestones as the two-year curriculum of the International
University of Grand-Bassam (IUGB) was established and the university's first eight students started classes in January 2005. In three short years, IUGB
enrollment has grown to 145, and the university will soon launch an ambitious five-year business plan that sets an enrollment goal of approximately 1,200 by 2014.
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