Al-Fanar Media and ALECSO to Cooperate on Raising Arab Education Quality
On the sidelines of the Twinning of Arab Universities Forum, Al-Fanar Media and ALECSO, the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation, signed a memorandum of understanding to enter into strategic cooperation to enhance education quality in the region and promote Arab culture.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Mohamed Ould Amar, director general of ALECSO, and Nadia El-Gowely, executive director of Al-Fanar Media (AFM), at ALECSO’s headquarters in Tunisia at the start of the first twinning forum. The two-day forum began on Tuesday and was attended by participants from 37 Arab universities, and Arab and international institutions.
According to ALECSO, the forum came within the framework of its efforts to enhance and support joint Arab action on advancing scientific research and implement the Arab Strategy for Scientific and Technological Research and Innovation, which was adopted by the Arab League in 2017.
The MoU between ALECSO and Al-Fanar Media stipulates that both sides will work together “to find opportunities to enhance Arab culture, and encourage best practices and the highest standards in education across the Arab world.” Among the activities included in the agreement is holding joint lectures, seminars, and conferences between the two sides.
Ould Omar said in his opening speech that the forum aims to attract Arab and international organisations, institutions, and centres to actively participate in implementing the Arab strategy for research and innovation. The organisation believes that Arab universities and their research and scientific centres are “beacons of science and cultural and intellectual radiance”, which makes them one of the effective elements in implementing that strategy, he said.
“Cooperation with ALECSO opens broad horizons for cooperation, which will benefit the region’s higher-education sector by improving its quality, addressing challenges, advancing scientific research, and promoting Arab culture.”
Nadia El-Gowely, executive director of Al-Fanar Media.
The MoU also comes within the framework of ALECSO’s goal to open more partnerships with Arab and international institutions to achieve the goals of the Arab strategy for research and innovation.
At the signing, Nadia El-Gowely, of AFM, said that cooperation with ALECSO “opens broad horizons for cooperation, which will benefit the region’s higher-education sector, by improving its quality, addressing challenges, advancing scientific research, and promoting Arab culture.”
Al-Fanar Media’s Strategy
AFM’s signing of the MoU was based on its established strategy to expand circles of cooperation and networking with Arab, regional and international organisations related to and influencing the higher-education system, in the interest of Arab academic institutions, their students, and researchers.
AFM has partnership and cooperation agreements with bodies and institutions active in academic work, including the Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED) and QS Quaquarelli Symonds, a British higher-education analytics company that publishes the QS World University Rankings and other classifications of universities by region and subject.
AFM’s website is its primary interface in opening horizons of knowledge and permanent dialogue between students and researchers, and cultural and academic exchange, through wide areas of cooperation, understanding, and thinking, including various issues that reflect the concerns of higher education across all universities around the world.
Through its website, AFM provides professional media coverage of academic affairs in the Arab region, not limited to news and in-depth reports, through a network of correspondents in the Arab world.
It also includes a free newsletter for subscribers, a podcast specialising in higher-education issues, and a comprehensive database for scholarships available to Arab students in universities and institutions around the world.
It also holds webinars with Arab academics on the challenges facing students and professors in light of the rapid development of educational technology and AI, and the relationship of current curricula and mechanisms to the skills required in the changing labour market.
Related Reading:
