Madison College looking to launch African studies certificate program

Madison Area Technical College in Wisconsin, called Madison College for short, intends to offer a certificate in African studies as part of an effort to expand its curriculum and bolster international student enrollment.

English professor Cherif Correa is overseeing the certificate program with help from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s African Studies Department, Madison.com reports. UW-Madison has access to the type of federal resources required to develop the curriculum. 

The initiative also includes creating partnerships with institutions in Africa for academic exchange programs. 

“When we seek to connect with African institutions, it is vital that we see that as a learning opportunity for ourselves as much as one for our African peers,” said Geoff Bradshaw, Madison College’s associate vice president of intercultural education. 

A U.S.-based education that offers real-world skills could be useful to African students because of the high demand for education on the continent. In October, Madison College established a partnership with Kenya’s Rift Valley Institute of Business Studies and will do the same this month with the University of Gambia.

Bradshaw referred to “a large market of students who cannot all be served by local African institutions and want to come to the USA for an education.”

He said Madison College was “striving to approach this initiative with both humility and respect for fellow humanity, such that we can both learn from one another, and both partner institutions can mutually build collaboration.”

The school’s African studies certificate program, still in development, aims to especially encourage American students to take a deep dive into the culture and history of Africa. 

The program would require course integration across multiple campus departments, according to Aleia McCord, associate director of UW-Madison’s African Studies Program. 

“We are really committed to an interdisciplinary education,” McCord said, maintaining that “the world’s most pressing global challenges … can’t be solved by a single discipline.”

The Madison College certificate program could launch next fall. 

McCord noted the African studies courses are meant “to disrupt these simplistic, two-dimensional narratives of the continent and provide a more rich understanding of this place.”

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