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30-4-2007
 By Fares
Anam
Apr 24, 2007,
11:08
The union
wants greater integration and use of scientific research. The
Fortieth Session of the General Conference of the Arab Universities Union began
on Saturday in Sana’a. The conference was attended by the Prime Minister Ali
Mohammed Mujawar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Saleh
Ba Surrah, the Secretary General of the Arab Universities Union, Saleh Hashim, and
150 participants from the heads of Arab universities, members of the Union and representatives of Arab, regional and
international organizations.
The
conference was hosted by the University
of Science and Technology. Ba Surrah said that the conference would
spend two days to discuss a number of topics, such as a guarantee of quality, accreditation
of academics and other topics on the agenda, including the Secretariat’s report
on the activity of the Union and its work
between the sessions. He mentioned that there would be a conference of the
scientific and academic councils on the sidelines of the conference.
“The conference is an opportunity to communicate
between the heads of Arab universities and Yemen, to discuss ways to strengthen
and develop cooperation with each other,” Ba Surrah said. “This conference, which is being held in one
of Yemen’s private universities,
emphasizes the development of the level of higher education in Yemen.”
“The conference is an opportunity to inform the
participants on the experience of Yemen in the field of higher education and
the size of development and expansion in of this vital sector in both the
public and private sectors,” Ba Surrah said.
Prime Minister Mujawar called for the development of networking and Arab
integration in the educational process, knowledge and research, for the
continuous upgrading of the output of higher education and development services
in the Arab countries.
He
emphasized the importance of higher education being directed towards
specialization in the areas of overall development, both cognitively and in
application, and creating strong association between higher education
institutions. “The session of the union’s
conference that was held in Sana’a in 1997 had a positive impact in the service
of the educational process in the field of higher education in the Arab world, and
today we hope to continue its vital role in the development of higher education
administration, curriculum and accreditation standards,” Mujawar said.
Scientific
research is an essential factor of the scientific activity of universities, he
said. “The universities will be able to play their proper role in the
advancement and access to advanced levels in various aspects of life, as
desired by the nation.” “The role of
the Union of Arab Universities is very important to achieving that goal, through
attention to the process of research and the inventive Arab minds,” said
Mujawar.
Mujawar
also mentioned the attention and support provided by the Yemeni government to
the general and higher education sector: “The government is always eager to
increase the volume of financial allocations to this sector to promote and
improve its outputs, to continue the scientific progress and development of
Yemeni society,” he said. He pointed
out that the education budget has risen to more than 20 percent, compared to
that of earlier periods.
“There
are more than six million students in primary and secondary schools and about 200
thousand students in the universities, of which there are more than 15, government
and private,” he said. The prime
minister expressed his wish that the results of the conference would promote
the role of science and knowledge to face the challenges facing the Arab nation
in the various aspects of economic and social development.
The
participants in the Union of Arab Universities conference agreed on the need to
increase the budgets of Arab universities for the purpose of scientific
research and encourage research teams at Arab universities to study topics of
interest to the Arab nation and put together a plan to solve these problems via
scientific research. Dr. Da’wood al-Hadabi,
Chairman of University of Science and Technology said that the conference
represented a periodic review of the reality of higher education in the Arab world.
“The conference is an important task representing
a big challenge for all of us,” he said.
“The future of the Arab nation depends primarily on efficiency and effectiveness
of higher education in general, and university education in particular,” al-Hadabi
said. “We need to develop the education system in the university fully in all
the basic elements, such as members of the faculty, administrative regulations,
sources of education, admissions policy and curriculum.”
At the end
of the session, participants called for a conference to address the importance
of scientific research to solve the problems of the Arab nation, and put a
priority on these problems for study by Arab governments. The participants recommended that the members
of Arab Universities Union create a webpage on the internet for the Arab
Council for Higher Studies and Scientific Research, interested in the subjects
of scientific symposia and conferences that was established by the Security
Council.
The University of Prince Nayef
for Security Sciences in Saudi
Arabia was announced as the venue of the 41st
session of the conference. Ba Surra
praised the recommendations and resolutions of the conference, stressing the
importance of scientific research in various areas because of its importance in
driving Arab development. |
