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Home > For Principal Reps and Faculty > International Corner
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs * * * * * * * * * * * * LBJ School’s International Partnerships on
Civil Society The LBJ School of Public Affairs currently administers three federally funded multi-institutional partnerships with Mexican, Canadian, and Brazilian universities. Bilateral Civil Society Education Partnership and Trilateral Civil Society Education Consortium. The LBJ School of Public Affairs and its RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) were awarded a multi-year grant in 2002 by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Training, Internship, Education, and Scholarship Program to form the Bilateral Civil Society Education Partnership. This partnership seeks to enhance civil societies in Mexico and the United States through collaborative institutional relationships and human resource development in order to foster new generations of third sector leaders. The Bilateral Civil Society Education Partnership consists of UT Austin and four Mexican universities: Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Universidad de las Americas – Puebla, Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey – Ciudad de Mexico, and El Colegio Mexiquence, A.C. The partners work on projects that: (1) build institutional capacity for faculty training in issues related to philanthropy, non-profit management, civil society, and volunteerism; (2) contribute to curriculum development in these fields at each university; (3) facilitate student exchanges between the partner universities; (4) support collaborative research on issues related to civil society organizations, philanthropy, and volunteerism; (5) build institutional capacity for community outreach through conferences and the publication of research; and (6) create networks between universities and the local civil society organizations. Also in 2002, the LBJ School and the RGK Center were awarded a four-year grant by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), US Department of Education, through its North American Mobility in Higher Education Program, to form a Trilateral Civil Society Education Consortium (TCSEC). The purpose of the TCSEC is to promote institutional linkages and student mobility among the eight participating universities throughout North America. The TCSEC includes three Mexican universities – Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Colegio Mexiquense in Toluca, and Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas; two Canadian universities – Carleton University and the University of Victoria; and two universities in the United States – Indiana University and UT Austin. The US, Canadian, and Mexican partners in both the bilateral and trilateral partnerships focus on a student-centered program of exchanges, professional and internship experience, joint research projects, and development of trilateral educational curricula, conferences, and institutional networks. During the first full year of student mobility, 16 students spent a semester at a foreign partner university. Students enroll as full-time students and attend classes in the language of the receiving university. This consortium of universities has also created a Civil Society Institute, held for the first time in Austin, Texas, in summer 2004. The Institute will offer intensive civil society education, practical exposure, and training opportunities for Mexican, Canadian, and US students in a unique trilateral context. Additional information on the Trilateral Civil Society Education Consortium is available at http://www.studycivilsociety.org. Bilateral Consortium in Social Science and Public Policy. The LBJ School of Public Affairs and the UT Austin Brazil Center (Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies) were awarded a four-year FIPSE grant in 2001 to form the Bilateral Consortium in Social Science and Public Policy (BCSP). The purpose of the BCSP is to promote institutional linkages and student mobility among the participating universities. BCSP institutions include three Brazilian universities – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Fundacao Getulio Vargas-Sao Paulo, and Universidade Federal de Pernambuco – funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Education, and two FIPSE-funded US universities – UT Austin and UCLA. Formal cooperative agreements among the five universities were signed in 2002; these agreements allow for the recognition of course credits at the participating student’s home university. The exchange students enroll as full-time students and attend classes in the language of the receiving university. Through December 2004, 17 students from UT Austin and UCLA will have spent a semester in Brazil, and 25 Brazilian students will have attended UT Austin or UCLA. A new course, “Public Policy of Brazil and the United States: A Comparative Perspective,” was developed at the LBJ School in 2003; the Brazilian exchange students enroll in the course, as well as UT Austin students going to Brazil to study under this consortium. Although the FIPSE consortium grant did not provide funding for research, several policy research initiatives have resulted from the collaboration of faculty members in the BCSP programs. For example, the LBJ School and UNICAMP are collaborating on comparative policy research in health and metropolitan governance, and they also have proposed the creation of comparative policy field stations. In addition, several of the BCSP professors have collaborated on a book manuscript comparing the recent decentralization and sub-national policy making in the two countries.
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