Qatar Foundation selects OCW as a winner of the 2010 World Innovation Summit for Education Award
CAMBRIDGE, MA, November 15, 2010 — The Qatar Foundation announced today that MIT OpenCouseWare has been selected as one of six laureates for the 2010 World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Award. Initiated in 2009, the WISE Award is designed to reward, showcase and support outstanding and innovative educational projects from across the world and from all educational sectors. WISE Awards 2010 reward initiatives under the theme of Transforming Education: Investment, Innovation and Inclusion.
Thirty finalists, including OCW, were selected from hundreds of applicants across 89 countries. The laureates were chosen by a panel of judges chaired by Dr Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, Chairman of WISE, Qatar Foundation. The panel included Professor Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, Executive Chair of Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA); Dr Judith S. Eaton, President of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), USA; Mr Mike Gibbons CEO, Richard Rose Federation; Professor Fasli Jalal, Vice Minister of National Education, Indonesia; and Professor Zhou Qifeng, President, Peking University.
Other 2010 laureates include Next Einstein Initiative (AIMS-NEI) African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), South Africa; The Citizens Foundation, Pakistan; Mother Child Education Program (MOCEP),ACEV–Mother Child Education Foundation, Turkey; The Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio (Farm 98.0 FM), The Smallholders Foundation, Nigeria; and Rewrite the Future, Save the Children, UK.
“It’s a tremendous honor for MIT OpenCourseWare to be listed among such fine education projects from around the world,” says Associate Provost Philip Khoury, who oversees MIT’s strategic planning for international education and research, as well as the MIT OpenCourseWare program. “We are very pleased to have received this recognition from the Qatar Foundation and to have been selected by a panel of respected educational leaders with such a broad global perspective.”
On Wednesday, December 8, MIT OpenCourseWare Executive Director Cecilia d’Oliveira will speak at the Qatar Foundation’s World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha, Qatar, as part of a panel on Open Education Models. The Summit will bring together over 1,000 participants from many different walks of life and every corner of the world: eminent decision makers, educationalists, thought leaders, politicians and a wide range of public and private sector multistakeholders. Together they will continue fostering innovative collaborations and action-oriented initiatives, inspiring and spearheading creative change in the world of education.
About the Qatar Foundation
Qatar Foundation is dedicated to building human capital in a part of the world where the need and potential for human development are considerable. Through its threefold mission of education, scientific research and community development, it is helping build a sustainable society where the sharing and creation of knowledge will enhance quality of life for all. Qatar Foundation was established in 1995 by His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, as a vehicle to convert the country’s current, but temporary, mineral wealth into durable human capital.
About OpenCourseWare
An OpenCourseWare is a free and open digital publication of high quality university-level educational materials – often including syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, and exams – organized as courses. While OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiatives typically do not provide a degree, credit, or certification, or access to instructors, the materials are made available under open licenses for use and adaptation by educators and learners around the world.
About MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare makes the materials used in the teaching of substantially all of MIT’s undergraduate and graduate courses—more than 2,000 in all—available on the Web, free of charge, to any user in the world. OCW receives an average of 1.5 million web site visits per month from more than 215 countries and territories worldwide. To date, more than 70 million visitors have accessed the free MIT educational materials on the site or in translation.
