Highlights

Towards Competitiveness and Equity in Tertiary Education in the MENA Region: Collaboration for Good Governance, Sustainable Financing and Internationalization 

Rationale 

The conference comes as a sixth in a series of regional conferences on Tertiary Education in MENA organized by the World Bank Group and Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI). These conferences were initiated after consultations with governments in the region, resulting in the development of the University Governance Screening Card (UGSC) which has been successfully implemented on a variety of tertiary education institutions in 8 MENA countries, and on the establishing of a collaborative network of universities supported by key international partners and governments. Successive meetings have been organized in Cairo (2011), Rabat (2012), Tunis (2014), Beirut (2015) and Algiers (2016) demonstrating the increased interest on this collaborative agenda in the region. The 2017 Conference was held at the headquarters of the CMI in Marseille, France, and was an opportunity to assess progress achieved, share lessons learned, and, more importantly, discuss the way forward in defining key priorities for regional collaboration in tertiary education.

Objective 

This year’s conference brought together key officers from governments, heads of tertiary education agencies, representatives from international partner organizations, regional experts, and a selected number of the members of the MENA Higher Education Governance and Management Network. The meeting provided the opportunity to bring together a group of decision makers and practitioners to think collectively about what has been achieved so far and the next steps to be defined in the collaboration agenda.  

The meeting was an opportunity to showcase the results of the second edition of the University Governance Screening Card in which more than 150 tertiary education institutions in 8 countries in the MENA region have recently participated. The results were presented in light of the changes that have happened in the region since the implementation of the first version of the screening card, as well as the development of the local sector in each of the participating countries. This provided an opportunity for the participants, partners and the organizers to highlight innovations and reforms and identify best practices that would enable tertiary education in the MENA region to further advance towards competitiveness and equity by addressing policy and practice challenges and exploring policy response to issues of improved governance, sustainable financing and internationalization in each of the participating countries.

Outcomes

Participants were engaged through presentations and group discussions. The conference aimed at encouraging dialogue and stimulating debate, as well as serving as a capacity building exercise for tertiary education institutions in the MENA region.

Resources 

Agenda

Partcipants List  

One Pager Summary: Governance, Financing and Internationalisation 

Participants' Presentation

General Session: “What is happening in tertiary education in the MENA region”

Nacera Mezache, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Algeria: Apercu sur le systeme d'enseignement superieur et de recherche Algerien   Video FR

Magda Abou El Safa, University of Sadat City, Egypt: Egyptian Tertiary Education Context and Overview

Ahmed Anwar Dzaye, Salaheddine University-Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq: The Case of Salahaddine University

Ahmad Jammal, Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Lebanon: Panorama de l’Enseignement Supérieur Au Liban (Établissements, Administration)   Video FR

Mohamed Aboussalah, Ministry of National Education, Vocational Training and Higher Education, Morocco: Systeme denseignement superieur au Maroc   Video FR

H.E. Basri Salmoodi, Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Palestinian Territories: Higher Education in the State of Palestine 

Mahjoub Aouni, Monastir University, Tunisia: Collaboration for Good Governance, Sustainable Financing and Internationalization   Video FR

Amine Bensaid, Mondiapolis, Morocco:  Video FR

Topic 1: Governance Practices across Tertiary Education Institutions in MENA: Preliminary Findings of the UGSC V.2.0

UGSC Team, World Bank: Governance Trends in MENA Tertiary Education Institutions

Topic 2: Internationalization of Tertiary Education in MENA: Why it Matters?

Giulia Marchesini, CMI: Internationalization of Tertiary Education in the MENA Region

Topic 3: Issues and Trends in Financing Tertiary Education in MENA

 Francisco Marmolejo and Hana Addam El Ghali, World Bank: Issues and Trends in Financing Tertiary Education in MENA   Video EN

Event's Photos