The U8 Global Student Partnership for Development is a student

Student

A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

-led global university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 network. Founded in 2005 by students in the wake of the Make Poverty History

Make Poverty History

Make Poverty History is the name of a campaign that exists in a number of countries, including Australia, Canada, Denmark , Finland, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Romania, the United Arab Emirates, Great Britain and Ireland...

 campaign, it provides an impartial platform for students to learn, share ideas and attempt to make a positive impact on the least developed parts of the world. It currently has 50 member universities in countries such as Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

 and the UK. The U8 seeks to work towards a world of in which leaders and professionals understand and engage with international development

International development

International development or global development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans...

 issues.

Etymology

The U8 takes its name from the 8th of the Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...

 – to develop a global partnership for development. The name is also a play on the G8

G8

The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...

, with a strong contrast drawn between the exclusivity of the G8 and the inclusivity of the U8.

Activities

The U8 arena allows for sustained, unbounded discussion both online and face-to-face at local, national and international levels. It is hoped that by connecting students from around the globe, their understanding of complex issues and their ability to reflect upon, appraise and challenge policy and practice will be increased. Local activities include speaker events, such as the Warwick International Development Summit, and skills-based courses such as the Cambridge (in affiliation with CUiD) and Oxford University International Development Courses, which are organised by member groups. Global activities, are based around four pillars:

1. Research - online, collaborative projects, proposed by members and carried out via online communication. The outcomes are published online and usually take the form of research documents. Research outcomes from 2005 were submitted to the UK Department for International Development's 2005 White Paper, and a paper from 2006 was published in an Indian university journal.

2. Discussion - hosted on the online forums, where members can propose or join existing debates on topical issues. The monthly "Veritas" focus topic is used to provoke thoughts and debate, and there are also "Feature Forums" where high-profile development professionals reply to members' posts on a particular topic.

3. Blogs - Written by members and professionals on development issues.

4. Writing - Articles are published online and in an annual print publication, which has been designed by students from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, for the past two years.

Aims

1. Shared Learning - To facilitate learning partnerships based on knowledge-exchange and joint-analysis of development issues.

2. Promoting a Culture of Inclusion - To be inclusive to different levels of knowledge, cultural perspectives, and academic disciplines.

3. Engagement with Stakeholders and Policy Makers - To understand their objectives and practices. We work with professional organisations as equal partners to achieve shared objectives. We aim to provide students with opportunities to take part in policy discussions and deliver their own recommendations.

4. Promoting awareness and understanding of development issues.

External links

• Official homepage
• Old Official homepage
• Cambridge University International Development A founding member of the U8.