Latitudes: The Taliban cut off access to education. A new partnership wants to change that.

How a college and a nonprofit group teamed up to provide English courses to Afghan women and girls. ADVERTISEMENT [Latitudes Logo]( You can also [read this newsletter on the web](. Or, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, [unsubscribe](. A partnership for hope The Taliban has limited access to education for Afghan women and teenage girls. But Arizona State University and a Canadian nonprofit have teamed up to provide online English-language courses to 2,000 students. More than 15,000 Afghan women have applied to the program, and the partners, Arizona State’s [Education for Humanity]( program and [Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan]( say they plan to educate all of them. “They are going through a dark time, and they are losing hope,” said Murwarid Ziayee, senior director for the Canadian nonprofit. “We want to bring hope and light.” In August 2021, the Taliban [seized control]( of the Afghan government and promised a return to a conservative strain of Islam, one that is opposed to the education of women and girls. Universities were closed to female students, and formal education for girls ends typically at the sixth grade. Canadian Women, the nonprofit, has worked in Afghanistan for more than 25 years, advocating for equal education and human rights. Over the years, it has offered literacy courses, trained teachers, and set up community libraries and science labs. Arizona State started Education for Humanity in 2017 as an effort to use the university’s expertise in online education to meet the needs caused by the [growing refugee crisis]( around the globe, said Nick Sabato, the program’s senior director. Only about 5 percent of young refugees are able to access higher education. While the ASU project was originally aimed at helping displaced students complete their degrees, organizers soon found that demand was greatest for English instruction and other short-term courses in areas like entrepreneurship and study skills. “It’s the first foot in the door,” Sabato said. Most of Education for Humanity’s work has been focused on people displaced by conflict and humanitarian crises, in refugee camps or other communities in places like Lebanon, Rwanda, and the Palestinian territories. It has served more than 7,000 learners in 18 countries. Afghanistan presented a new challenge — while many Afghans remained in their homes, their access to education had been cut off. Canadian Women, meanwhile, found that its strategies had to change, from education in community settings to coursework that women could complete in the privacy of their own homes. Demand also rose, and the organization, which has long worked with colleges and other education providers, was looking to increase its reach. The two partners complement each other: Arizona State provides the educational coursework. Canadian Women, with its long experience in Afghanistan, can do outreach and organizes conversation groups and learning communities to provide academic assistance and help students practice their English. In order to offer such wraparound support, the program is beginning with small cohorts of women, but interest has quickly grown as word of the English courses has spread through family and community networks. “It’s an astounding response,” Sabato said. Canadian Women and ASU said they are committed to serving these students, but there are challenges. Chief among them is the reliability of internet access. In refugee camps, Education for Humanity has been able to boost bandwidth to improve connectivity, but that’s not possible in Afghanistan. Courses must be able to be accessed by cellphones, and the university is working to develop offline access to its modules. Canadian Women gives grants to individuals and organizations for computers and Wi-Fi. It also maintains a library of virtual-education tools. Among the women they are hoping to reach are those who need English skills to apply to study overseas or to work remotely with international-aid organizations. Ziayee herself was a college student in 1996, when the Taliban previously came to power. Because she spoke English, she worked on the ground for Canadian Women, becoming country director. She’s now based in Canada. Ziayee said the value of education for women is long term. Mothers who are educated are more likely to [send their children to school](. And Afghanistan will need an educated populace when it again shakes off Taliban control. “The situation will change. The time will come,” she said. “And they will be prepared.” Want to read more? Arizona State took in 64 Afghan women who fled the Taliban on its home campus. I wrote about other such students who have been studying at the [University of Delaware](. Colleges in [Kentucky]( have mobilized to aid refugee and displaced students after the General Assembly passed a first-of-its-kind statewide scholarship. Last year, the U.S. Department of State approved a plan to make it easier for colleges to [sponsor]( refugee students and help them resettle in the United States. This is only tangentially related to higher education, but did you see this New York Times [piece]( about a retired professor in California’s Central Valley who has been giving driving lessons to Afghan women? Gil Howard, known as Mr. Gil, has taught 400 immigrant women to drive, possibly more female drivers than in all of Afghanistan. ADVERTISEMENT NEWSLETTER [Sign Up for the Teaching Newsletter]( Find insights to improve teaching and learning across your campus. Delivered on Thursdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, [sign up]( to receive it in your email inbox. San Francisco seeks to attract a Chinese university San Francisco’s downtown has had some much-publicized struggles with the rise of hybrid and remote work since the pandemic. But the city’s mayor may have an unusual economic-revitalization solution: Attract an international branch campus. Mayor London Breed [told]( the San Francisco Chronicle that she planned to meet with officials at Fudan University during a trip to China this week. Fudan “has interest in potentially looking at a site in San Francisco for a campus,” she told the newspaper. Though American colleges attract nearly 255,000 [Chinese students]( it’s relatively rare for a Chinese university to set up an outpost in the United States. With a third of San Francisco’s financial-district office space sitting empty, Breed has turned to higher education to spur economic rebirth, also inviting the [University of California]( to open a campus in former commercial properties. FROM THE CHRONICLE STORE [The Athletics Advantage - The Chronicle Store]( [The Athletics Advantage]( For tuition-driven institutions, sports are often a key recruiting tool. [Order this report]( for insights on how small colleges are using athletics to drive student enrollment, engagement, and retention. News on higher ed and the Israel-Hamas war As the conflict in the Middle East continues, the U.S. government will offer emergency relief for [Palestinian students]( on F-1 visas experiencing severe economic hardship because of the humanitarian crisis at home, allowing them to work more hours and take a reduced course load. There are about 450 students from the Palestinian territories studying on U.S. campuses. Meanwhile, Strom C. Thacker, president of Pitzer College, in California, has [vetoed]( the recommendation of a collegewide panel of professors, students, and staff members calling for a full academic boycott of Israeli higher-education institutions. The liberal-arts college earlier said that it would pull back from a longstanding [study-abroad partnership]( with the University of Haifa. “I will not accept recommendations that run contrary to Pitzer’s commitment to academic freedom, to creating a safe and productive learning environment for all, and to the core value of intercultural understanding,” Thacker said in a written statement. Student activists said Thacker “shamefully resorted to the use of un-democratic veto power” to override a resolution supported by the broader college community. The veto itself undermines academic freedom, [Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine]( and Jewish Voice for Peace said, arguing that the boycott was needed because of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians. In other news: - A German university has withdrawn the offer of a prestigious visiting professorship to a Jewish American philosopher who signed a [letter]( supporting an academic boycott of Israel. - Israeli academics are facing a [backlash]( after they signed a petition calling the war in Gaza “plausible genocide.” SPONSOR CONTENT | Queen’s University Belfast [How Data Analysis Reshapes Healthcare Management]( Sign up for a webinar on diversifying international recruitment While China and India continue to dominate international-student recruitment, many colleges are seeking new regions of untapped interest in American higher education. What do colleges need to know about these emerging markets to get started? How can they best communicate with prospective students? Join The Chronicle on Tuesday, April 23, at 2 p.m. ET for a virtual forum featuring admissions experts who will discuss where new opportunities exist and how to break into these regions. The session will also include time for attendees to ask questions about specific areas of interest. [Register here](. ADVERTISEMENT Around the globe More than half of universities in North America and Europe said they have restricted international partnerships because of [geopolitical tensions]( according to a [survey]( of 700 institutions worldwide. But the majority of institutions in other regions, including Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, said they had not limited academic collaboration. Nearly 200 American colleges had contracts with [Chinese businesses]( valued at $2.3 billion, between 2012 and 2024, according to The Wall Street Journal. During a state visit by Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, the United States and Japan [agreed]( to increase research partnerships and educational exchanges, including restarting STEM scholarships to Japan as part of the Fulbright Program for the first time in 50 years. They also announced an endowment to send Japanese and American high-school and college students to study abroad. The State Department said U.S. citizens should “[reconsider]( travel to Hong Kong because of “arbitrary enforcement” of a national-security law. Many colleges tie their policies for [study-abroad programs]( and other international travel to the government advisories. The U.S. government will renew emergency relief for students from [Ethiopia](. Medical schools in Sudan have been [attacked]( looted, and even turned into military bases. One in six students at French colleges is from overseas, for a total of about 412,000 international students, according to [Campus France](. Francophone universities in Canada are [challenging]( a [national cap]( on international students. Russia plans to open an international branch campus in [Cuba]( by the end of this year. Young Chinese are giving up on [saving for retirement]( because of job shortages, low wages, and uncertainty about the future. A student who was allegedly denied admission to two Chinese graduate programs because of [animal cruelty]( has sparked a debate in China about whether personal conduct and moral considerations should play a part in college acceptances. International immigration drove [American population growth]( in 2023. It’s the “best of times, worst of times” for international education, Allan Goodman, chief executive of the Institute of International Education, writes in [Forbes](. Thanks for reading. I always welcome your feedback and ideas for future reporting, so drop me a line at karin.fischer@chronicle.com. You can also connect with me on [X]( or [LinkedIn](. If you like this newsletter, please share it with colleagues and friends. 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