Asian University for Women's symposium in city on Oct 17

The inauguration of a new university chartered to grant degrees to underserved women in Asia will be celebrated at a Symposium in Dhaka on October 17-18, reports UNB. brThe Asian University for Women (AUW), based in Chittagong, will offer a five-year programme of combined bachelor's and graduate-level professional training across the liberal arts, communications technology, management, public policy, and environmental science.brThe initiative is funded by leading global corporations and foundations plus individual donors dedicated to educational opportunities for future women leaders and entrepreneurs from rural, impoverished areas in Asia.brFeatured speakers at the October kick-off event include Nobel Laureate and Grameen Bank founder Managing Director Prof Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain, UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Lubna Al-Qasimi and Iranian human rights advocate Mehrangiz Kar.brPrincipal funders of the Asian University for Women include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Goldman Sachs Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and USAID. brKamal Ahmad is President and CEO of the Asian University Support Foundation, the strategic planning and philanthropic arm of AUW.brThe Asian University for Women currently underwrites the education of 130 women from six Asian nations as part of their access academy, a pre-university preparatory curriculum that will help the young women migrate easily to their first year of College in the Fall of 2009.