Pitt Professor Receives 2007 Fulbright New Century Scholars Award

PITTSBURGH-Consuella Lewis, assistant professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, has received a Fulbright New Century Scholars (NCS) grant for the 2007-08 academic year to examine the topic "Higher Education in the 21st Century: Access and Equity." The only junior faculty member to receive the honor, Lewis is one of 36 top scholars from 25 countries and regions to have been chosen.

Drawn from a variety of disciplines and selected by a distinguished peer review panel, NCS scholars work in cooperation to advance the state of human understanding on a chosen topic.

Lewis' project will examine access and educational equity in Zanzibar by assessing the demand for higher education in Zanzibar as it pertains to social and human resources development. She will identify key areas for higher education expansion that will meet anticipated social and economic development, prepare a 10-year master plan for the State University of Zanzibar, examine policies that will foster access and educational equity for women, and increase access through new models of resource allocation and policies for financing higher education.

This year's Fulbright NCS scholars will pursue individual research projects abroad and in the United States and will come together three times during the program year to share research, exchange perspectives, and pursue collaborative activities in seminar meetings planned for Buffalo, N.Y.; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Washington, D.C. As a group, the scholars will identify key issues in contemporary higher education demanding careful research and analysis and will develop a broad framework for understanding and for constructive action to ensure the future of higher education in its national and global settings.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, the NCS Program is an international, interdisciplinary program that brings together outstanding research scholars and professionals from around the world to explore issues of global significance for one year. Now in its fifth year, the program, which is designed for high-quality research, provides a platform for a multinational group of outstanding scholars and professionals from different spheres to focus on a single issue of concern to people worldwide, and to produce a body of multidisciplinary research/analysis that might serve as the basis for innovative approaches to policy issues of universal concern.

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