Education Information Centers (EIC's)

Mission statement

The EIC's general objectives are:
• Provide education information to students, academics and the general public
• Increase the number of Azerbaijanis studying abroad
• Develop OSI's presence and activity in the regions of Azerbaijan
• Create bases for OSI activity and support throughout Azerbaijan
• Increase the number of individual grantees, OSI projects, and NGOs in the regions

Achievements

• Under the HESP program, OSI opened its first EIC in Baku in 1997, known as BEIC.
• The BEIC has over 1,200 visitors each month and is growing steadily.
• Due to its unprecedented success the BEIC has been established as an independent, local NGO reporting directly to the OSI-Azerbaijan Executive Director.
• An overwhelming demand for the BEIC's services has resulted in an effort to expand its activity beyond Baku to develop appropriate regional centers - OSI opened smaller versions of the EIC in Gandja, Lenkeran and Mingechevir.
• The regional EIC's have been successful from the start and OSI now has plans to open up two more offices in the regions over the 2000-2001 time frame.

Activities

The centers provide the following resources:
• university catalogues and guides, test preparation materials, CD-ROM databases on study abroad, and Internet-connected computers for education-related browsing.
• small libraries on human rights, the rule of law, and information about women's rights.
• bulletin boards featuring scholarships, grants, community information and other announcements.
• computers with copies of OSI and other donors' application materials in order to facilitate maximum regional participation with OSI and its programs.
• important Russian and Azeri newspapers and magazines such as Itogi in order to combat the information vacuum in the regions.

Future Plans

1. To strengthen the regional network between EIC's and universities.
2. To establish the first EIC in Nakhichevan region (2002).