International Education Week Featured Speaker
Monday, November 14th at 7:00 p.m.
Smythe Lecture Hall, Room 170 Schroeder Family School of Business Administration Building
Featured Speaker
John A. Mosbo, Ph.D
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
University of Evansville
Experiences with Higher Education in the Middle East: the Gulf Cooperation Council
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) includes the nations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The development of higher education in these states has been relatively recent; the majority of institutions of higher education in the GCC countries have been founded only in the past two decades. In reaction to general dissatisfaction with the quality and effectiveness of those institutions in the region that were created and are directed by government agencies, numerous partnerships in higher education with Western universities as well as private education enterprises have been established. This discussion will present an examination of the recent and rapid growth of higher education in the region and the prospects for sustainability of various institutional models.
About our Speaker
John Mosbo came to the University of Evansville as Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs in June 2011. He earned his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from Iowa State University and has more than 30 years of experience in higher education. He has held administrative and leadership positions at Ball State University, James Madison University, and the University of Central Arkansas. In 2005, when Mosbo was the dean of faculty and vice president for academic affairs at Gustavus Adolphus College, he accepted the position of vice chancellor for academic affairs at the American University of Sharjah (founded in 1997). During his tenure as VCAA, Dr. Mosbo played a critical role in moving AUS, an institution that only recently had achieved a balanced budget, to what is widely considered the leading undergraduate institution in the Gulf region and the Middle East. From 2009 to 2011, Dr. Mosbo served as special advisor to the chancellor of AUS, overseeing strategic planning and implementing university-level initiatives, institutional effectiveness, and cost analyses.
