Asian University for Women

Asian University for Women (AUW) is an independent, international university in Chittagong, Bangladesh. AUW admits students solely on the basis of merit, regardless of their family's income level. In 2023, 85% of AUW students were on scholarship support with many being the first in their family to attend a university. AUW offers two pre-collegiate bridge programs called Access Academy and Pathways for Promise, as well as a three-year undergraduate program based on the liberal arts and sciences. As of 2025, AUW has around 1700 students enrolled from over 35 ethnicities across Asia and the Middle East.

History

The story of AUW began well before its inaugural class entered in 2008. The idea for the university grew out of the World Bank/UN Task Force on Higher Education and Society. In 2000, the Task Force, which included Kamal Ahmad, Harvard University's Dean Henry Rosovsky and the World Bank's former managing director Mamphela Ramphele, published its findings in a report titled "Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise", which concluded that developing countries must improve the quality of their institutions of higher learning, in governance and pedagogy, to compete in today's increasingly globalised, knowledge-based economy.

2001–2004

In January 2004, the government of Bangladesh, whose foreign minister Dipu Moni was a trustee of the university, granted a large plot of land for the construction of AUW's permanent campus in the near Chittagong.

Fundraising and planning efforts for AUW officially began in November 2001, when AUW Support Foundation was incorporated as a non-profit institution under section 501(c)3 of the United States Internal Revenue Code. AUW's Support Foundation is governed by a board of directors, which was established upon the group's incorporation as a non-profit organisation.

AUWSF board of directors published a Plan of Operations in May 2005, laying out the basic plans for AUW's curriculum, target student population, and sustainability efforts.

2005–2007

Grants from the Goldman Sachs Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2005 and 2006 provided the start-up funds that enabled AUW to become operational in 2008. Additional funding was provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, the U.S. State Department, and the IKEA Foundation, which promised sponsorship for 100 students for five years. In September 2006, the Parliament of Bangladesh ratified the university's charter, which guaranteed full autonomy and independence to AUW in its operations and academics - a unique arrangement in the region.

AUW began operations in Chittagong in March 2008. Its first cohort of students consisted of over 100 young women from six countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This inaugural class attended Access Academy, AUW's year-long bridge program designed to prepare underserved students for the rigors of university education. After completing the Access Academy program, 128 of them continued into the first year of their undergraduate studies and were joined by direct-entry students who began the undergraduate program in 2009.

2008–2010

In 2009, AUW's initial Board of Trustees was elected by the International Support Committee of Asian University for Women in accordance with the provisions of the charter of Asian University for Women.

Funding

AUW Support Foundation, a 501(c)(3)-registered nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the primary source of funding mobilization for the university.

It is governed by its own board of directors (several of whom serve on the AUW Board of Trustees). Separately, a number of independent "support groups" have been created in different tax jurisdictions around the world to help mobilize financial resources for the university - such support groups currently exist in UK, Denmark, Hong Kong, and Japan.

In 2024, 85% of students at AUW benefited from scholarships funded by governments, foundations, corporate sponsors and individual donors.

Academic programmes

Pre-undergraduate

AUW recruits underserved women, many of whom have not had adequate secondary school training due to their backgrounds. Therefore, AUW specially designed Access Academy, a one-year program which offers preparation in computer literacy, reading and writing in English, scientific thought, global history, and other subjects.

Given the lower standards of secondary school preparation in many of the communities from which AUW students come, the university has found that one year of Access Academy is not sufficient to prepare students from certain communities for AUW's rigorous undergraduate curriculum. AUW, therefore, offers Pathways for Promise to students who require a longer period of intensive preparation in English language, math, and computer literacy before enrolling in Access Academy.

Undergraduate

AUW students choose from the following majors: Biological Sciences (B.Sc.); Economics (B.A.); Computer Sciences (B.Sc.); Environmental Sciences (B.Sc.); Humanities (B.Sc.); Philosophy, Politics & Economics (B.A.); and Public Health Studies (B.Sc.).

Graduate

AUW offers master's degrees in education (M.A.) and Apparel & Retail Management (B.Sc.)

Internships and careers

AUW offers opportunities for students to participate in applied research projects, study programs, and internships to prepare them for professional life after AUW.

Accidents and injuries on campus

The death of one of AUW international students, Ms Zahra Hussaini, reported on 27 May 2022. Zahra had arrived from Afghanistan in February to join the pre-university program.

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)