The World Bank Board of Directors today approved $100 million in financing to support Sri Lanka’s higher education sector. This new initiative will help increase enrollment in priority disciplines, improve the quality of degree programs and promote research and innovation in the higher education sector. Building on experience in the higher education sector since 2003, the new Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development (AHEAD) operation is the first in Sri Lanka to use the World Bank Program for Results lending instrument. 

Together, the 15 high schoolers formed a team for the first World Smarts STEM Challenge. That's a science competition run by IREX, a global development nonprofit that strives to promote student enthusiasm for science, tech, engineering and math (aka STEM). Each of the 17 teams had teenagers in the D.C. area partnering with Ghanaians to identify and solve a real-world problem. 

In October, the world was listening to a very important story, one that the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs shares every day: the story of how empowering women and girls through educational and professional opportunities changes lives and communities. 

Participants build an electrical circuit based on a button battery during the recent WiSci camp in Peru [...] The camp is designed to expose the girls to a range of careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) fields, while the simulation exposed them to another very important option that could use more women with science and technical backgrounds: public service and diplomacy.

Fourteen talented students and teachers from the United States will travel to Tokyo, Japan for the third annual TOMODACHI Toshiba Science & Technology Leadership Academy, where they will team up with Japanese students and teachers. The week-long program is designed to foster closer ties between American and Japanese participants...

This month, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst stopped admitting Iranian citizens to its science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. (...) After consultation with the State Department, the university announced this week that it has reversed its decision.