Program Coordinator: Fakhri Abbasov

     OSI-Azerbaijan has been involved in the HESP program virtually from its inception. At its highest level, HESP offers programs catered to distributing information, fostering higher level education, and bringing educational programs to the regions of Azerbaijan. Its objectives for the program from the start have been:

• 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

HESP Summer Schools in Azerbaijan
     The higher education summer school programs set out to improve research skills and teaching in the social sciences, promote modern teaching methods, and improve professional qualifications of librarians. Further, the program strives to develop human rights and international humanitarian law academic programs, and improve ties between Azeri academics and their counterparts in the CIS and Europe.

HESP programs for universities
     The objectives for the university project under the HESP program are to assist Azerbaijani faculty in curriculum development, provide cost-effective support for higher education, and to Provide a forum for workshops, evaluation, and professional exchange on standards and methods. The foundation co-funded, with HESP, an Internet and curriculum development center at Azerbaijan University in 1998.

• 1997 HESP Expenditures: USD 47,442
• 1998 HESP Expenditures: USD 34,371
• 1999 HESP Expenditures: USD 91,986