Abstract
The overall objective of the Excellence in Higher Education Liberian Development (EHELD) project is to build regionally recognized and competitive academic Centers of Excellence (CoEs) that produce graduates who become leading professionals and entrepreneurs in the fields of engineering and agriculture in Liberia. The EHELD project's overall objectives are to: (1) develop a pipeline of secondary school students to increase access and attract talented students into the engineering and agriculture fields, with a focus on females; (2) assist the faculty and leaders of University of Liberia (UL) and Cuttington University (CU) to develop their capacity to create CoEs for the engineering and agricultural sciences; and (3) develop public-private partnerships for informing and supporting the CoE programs and the transition of their graduates into the workforce. The purpose of this mid-term assessment is to provide information about how well EHELD's strategy and related activities contribute to achieving the expected outcomes and to provide guidance for the project’s implementation for the time remaining to assist in ensuring achievement of those outcomes and their sustainability. The EHELD project has made commendable progress delivering many of the foundational components needed to improve the agricultural and engineering programs at CU and the UL, two very different higher education institutions in Liberia. This is the first higher education project to be implemented in Liberia since the end of the civil war and the project's achievements to date should be appreciated in this postwar and resource scarce environment. Greater emphasis is now needed at this juncture of the project on fostering ownership and institutionalization among partners to fully use, support and sustain the assets that have been put in place with project support. (Excerpt, modified)