Bard College Launches GHEA21, the Global Higher Education Alliance for the 21st Century

Bard College has launched a new international education initiative—GHEA21—that builds on the successes of the former Open Society University Network (OSUN).  GHEA21’s mission is to prepare students from diverse geographies and backgrounds to address global challenges as thoughtful and engaged citizens through rigorous liberal arts and sciences education. Underlying its work is a commitment to academic freedom and a belief in the fundamental link between higher education and democracy.
 
GHEA21’s core activities include building innovative, global classrooms that bring together diverse groups of students in settings that range from brick-and-mortar institutions to displaced persons camps; cocurricular programs in civic engagement; and rich opportunities for student and faculty mobility.
 
GHEA21 is grounded in reciprocal relationships with 27 partners, including the Bard Global Network of dual-degree partners.  GHEA21 has enabled the launch of the Bard Global Degree, a synchronous online Bard undergraduate degree program for students across the globe who, as a result of displacement, conflict, or political repression, have little opportunity to pursue a rigorous liberal arts education. These students join the Bard Global Degree from five GHEA21 partner institutions and programs.
 
GHEA21 is distinguished by its breadth of partnerships, including renowned institutions operating in exile (such as Parami University of Myanmar, the American University of Afghanistan, and European Humanities University from Belarus in exile in Lithuania) and leading institutions of higher education across five continents (including Ashesi University of Ghana, Universidad de los Andes of Colombia, BRAC University of Bangladesh, and the Central European University in Vienna). 
 
“We are grateful to the Open Society Foundations for their 30-plus years of support and partnership with Bard College. GHEA21 builds on that legacy and the legacy of OSUN and allows Bard to continue to do what it does best: open doors to a liberal arts education for those who have been left behind or denied access, ” said Executive Vice President at Bard and Vice Chancellor of GHEA21 Jonathan Becker.
 
GHEA21 provides unrivaled opportunities for undergraduate students to pursue global learning with faculty from around the world, including many who are threatened scholars. GHEA21 also embeds curricular and cocurricular civic engagement initiatives into partner institutions so that students, faculty, and institutions can realize their full potential as community actors and educators. 
 
GHEA21 builds on OSUN and Bard’s records of success. In the five years from 2020 to 2025, OSUN, and now GHEA21, has re-envisioned international education as a full curriculum of undergraduate liberal arts and sciences courses taught by faculty around the world to students across a broad range of geographies and backgrounds.  “We continue to see what’s possible when higher education works together with funders and NGOs who are committed to educational access and opportunity,” said Becker. 

Published with permission from Bard College news page.

Post Date: 10-01-2025