Activities for Participants

February 14, 2007: Completed applications due by 5 p.m. EST.
April 2007: Acceptance letters sent to participants.
July 2007: Background materials sent to fellows.
August 2007: First meeting held in Washington, D.C. Featuring higher education and policy experts, this meeting will cover various policy issues that will be loosely based on those identified by participants. Cross-national teams will be formed and fellows will select a topic for their white paper, which will be due prior to the next meeting.
September 2007 through January 2008: Cross-national collaboration among participants. Between meetings, cross-national teams will work together on their white paper. With a goal of creating an effortless, collaborative environment for participants, the IHEP staff will schedule periodic discussions and progress reports via the Internet.
January 2008: Second meeting held in South Africa. This meeting will allow cross-national teams an opportunity to provide progress of their activities as well as present a draft of their white papers. Participants will then seperate into regional country groups and begin synthesizing national access policies. While working together in person, within-country teams will begin preparing for the third meeting in which they will be concentrating on cataloguing national policies that impact access for disadvantaged students, and making recommendations for modified or new policies.
March-October 2008: Within-country teams collaborate. Between meetings, within-country teams will highlight current national policies and recommend new policies to decision makers who shape public policy and support economic and social development. If possible, teams will also initiate contact with local policymakers to explain their ideas and gauge initial reactions. The IHEP staff will again schedule periodic discussions and progress reports via the Internet.
November 2008: Third meeting held in Washington, D.C. In this meeting, all teams will discuss their new documents and current/possible challenges to implementing new policies in their home countries. Participants will offer lessons learned to be incorporated in a best practices document.
March 2009: Final proposed policies due. Final white papers and best practices documents will be disseminated to an international audience of higher education policy decision makers and influencers.

Activitie for future GPFP participants will follow a similar structure.

* Note: Meeting dates, deadlines, etc. are subject to change without further notice.