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University Preparatory Program

Welcome From The Director

Welcome to the University Preparatory Program (UPP) at the International University of Grand-Bassam. My colleagues and I hope you enjoy your time in our program, which provides students with a foundation of English and study skills they will need in their undergraduate career, graduate studies, and beyond. We are continually improving our program to provide the most interesting and useful activities in our courses. 

New students at IUGB are facing a whole new world. Not only do they need to master a new language, they must adjust to a new educational system that is very different than what they experienced in high school. Those students who spend time in the program have the advantage of practicing skills crucial for success in the American system, such as critical thinking, research, note-taking, oral presentation, and listening strategies. They have a chance to become more comfortable with group work, classroom discussions, and use of technology in education. We welcome you to join us for this adventure.

Julie Reimer Beda, 

Director of University Preparatory Program

Overview

UPP at IUGB is a serious and rigorous program that equips students with the skills required for academic success. Students take intensive English courses geared to their English level: Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced. Advanced students can also take a university-level math or computer science course for credit. 

The purpose of the program is to provide a solid foundation in English, as well as academic skills necessary to succeed in the U.S. style academic system, such as research, academic writing, use of online tools, and test taking strategies.

About Faculty

As of June 2023, UPP has nine full time instructors in addition to the director, from such countries as the United States, Cote d’Ivoire, the United Kingdom, and Mauritania. We also employ several of the best English instructors in Cote d’Ivoire as part time instructors each semester. Our instructors are highly qualified: all English instructors with either master’s degrees in applied linguistics or a related field, a CAPES degree plus many years experience, or a Ph.D.—several have all three. Our faculty provide extra help at no cost to students through their office hours and writing lab hours. All are also committed to continuing professional development in order to keep up to date on best teaching practices.

Program Highlight
  • Small class sizes (generally 12 to 20) 
  • Highly qualified faculty members 
  • A modern language lab for reinforcing listening and speaking skills 
  • Emphasis on academic English skills 
  • Diverse classroom activities
Placement

When a student applies, his or her level is determined by an Entrance Placement Test. In following semesters, student placement is determined by the grade point average (GPA) earned in the student’s respective level. The number of semesters spent in the program varies depending on the student’s initial entry level and their course grades.

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Fatima Doumbia Koné is a Mathematics lecturer at the international University of
Grand-Bassam (IUGB). Among the courses she taught we have the following: Introduction to
Differential Equations, Elementary Statistics, Calculus(I,II,III), Transforms in Applied Math,
Introduction to Linear Algebra, Operations Research and Abstract Algebra.
She has a Bachelor degree in Mathematics (IUGB), a Master degree in Pure and Applied
Mathematics (AUST) and she is currently enrolled for a PhD in Mathematics at the African
University of Science and Tecnology (AUST), Abuja. She has also been an intern at the
Institutional Banking Group department within GTBANK CI (Garanty Trust Bank Côte
D’Ivoire).
She is a former IUGB student and she was the president of the science club in 2015.
Academically, her goal is to be a great researcher and innovator on the topics of asymptotic
theories in Fuzzy Probability Theory and their various applications to image processing. She
has good programming skills (JAVA, LaTeX, C++) and she is bilingual (French and English).
Over the years, she has been developing a method of teaching which not only put students at
the center of the learning process but also which deconstruct most of the stereotypes about the
inaccessibility of mathematical knowledge to everybody.
Regarding her research activities, she has been working since 2018 on the topic of integration
on Banach spaces and a preprint of an interesting work is available at
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.04480. She is continuing with her research on integration but now
her PhD studies focus on Random Sets Integration in Probability Theory. Professionally, she
is a very active lecturer at IUGB and she is currently the faculty advisor of the SHE CLUB,
which aims at promoting women empowerment by providing learning, leadership and
networking opportunities.

I am currently Associate Professor of computer and data science in the school of science technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at the International University of Grand-Bassam (IUGB).
From 2000 to 2018, I successively worked as a research scientist at Independent Computing Research in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Assistant Professor at the department of computer science and
engineering at Université Laval in Québec, Canada; Research Associate at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) where I also received a Ph.D. degree in computer science in March 2000. Upon receiving a master's degree in mathematical and computing science
from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT) in 1990 in Japan, I worked as a research scientist at National/Panasonic, one of the most prestigious companies in Tokyo.
I am involved in research on Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Semantic Web and its applications in a wide range of fields. Besides, I designed the current Data Science program in effect
since September 2021 in STEM. In addition, I am also one the founders and current President of the
Ivorian Association of Artificial Intelligence and member of ORBICOM, the Network of UNESCO Chairs in Communication headquartered in University of Quebec in Montreal (UQUAM), Canada.

Kwame Simpe Ofori is an Assistant Professor in Finance at the school of Business and Social Sciences. He holds a doctorate degree in Finance, a master’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in Telecommunications Technology. He is also currently a PhD student at the School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. He has taught courses in the areas of finance, computer science, computer and electrical engineering, and telecommunication engineering. Before joining IUGB he lectured in several universities in Ghana. He also worked with Ghana Telecommunications Company as a support engineer. His research interests are in the areas of consumer behaviour, technology adoption and trust in online systems and in recent times financial econometrics. His papers have appeared in several CABS-ranked journals such as Information Technology and People, Journal of Cleaner Productions, Quality Management Journal, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, Journal of African Business, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology and Society and Business Review.