An-Najah National University : Encouraging Women’s Enrollment in Underrepresented Fields

An-Najah National University (ANNU) actively encourages women and girls to apply to academic and technical programmes in which women are underrepresented. Its approach combines school outreach, vocational guidance, accessible information on programmes and scholarships, collaboration with community and international partners, and public promotion of female role models in engineering and technology.

The University’s Women’s Enrollment & Participation Policy explicitly supports encouraging applications to programmes where women are underrepresented and addressing financial, academic, social and accessibility barriers. These commitments are demonstrated through the documented activities below, particularly outreach to girls’ schools and the gender-responsive technical education partnership implemented through Hisham Hijjawi College of Technology.

For 2025 academic year, women constitute 42.2% of students in Engineering and Information Technology and 45.7% in Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, according to the University figures provided for this update. These faculty-level figures help identify areas requiring continued attention. Outreach to particular programmes should also consider programme-level representation: women are not underrepresented in every STEM subject, and the Faculty of Science has a female majority.

1. Outreach and Awareness for Prospective Female Applicants

Technical education guidance at Al-Yarmouk Girls’ Secondary School — March 2025

On 19 March 2025, the Public Relations and Vocational Guidance team of Hisham Hijjawi College of Technology visited Al-Yarmouk Girls’ Secondary School in Nablus. The visit formed part of the College’s school guidance programme and introduced pupils to the importance of technical and vocational education, the College and its specialisations.

This is a direct example of University outreach to prospective female students: it brought information about technical study pathways to a girls’ school, helping pupils consider these options when choosing their future education.

Official report, published 20 March 2025.

The College’s 2025 school outreach news also records further guidance visits during March and April, demonstrating that the girls’ school visit formed part of a wider programme of educational outreach.

Early exposure to programming — March 2025

ANNU hosted the second round of the AFPC14 Arab Programming Competition for school students, reported on 27 March 2025, in collaboration with the Palestinian Programming Academy. The report records 71 participating students and 20 qualifiers for the next round.

This broader school initiative provides exposure to programming, logical thinking and problem-solving. It complements female-targeted outreach by introducing school pupils to technical learning; the published report does not provide a female participation total or identify the competition as a women-only recruitment campaign.

Official programming competition report.

2. Collaboration to Encourage Women’s Entry into Technical Education

GRIT–Thabri: Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Technical Education — 2019–2025

Through Hisham Hijjawi College of Technology, ANNU participated in GRIT–Thabri, implemented by the Lutheran World Federation and Canadian Lutheran World Relief, with support from the Canadian government. The published project overview identifies its duration as 2019 to the end of 2025.

The partnership promotes women’s entry into technical and vocational education through:

Scholarships for women and girls, including women with disabilities.
Community awareness activities and collaboration with local women’s organisations.
Events encouraging women to enroll in technical fields.
Improved laboratories and facilities supporting inclusive learning.
Curriculum development in technical areas, including modern carpentry, cybersecurity and smart systems.
Staff development to strengthen gender-responsive and inclusive education.

The partnership combines encouragement to enroll with practical support that makes participation more accessible.

GRIT project overview.

Documented support for female entrants in 2025/2026

A report published on 18 December 2025 documents a GRIT delegation visit to the College, accompanied by representatives of the Canadian government. The delegation reviewed project-supported workshops and laboratories, including Internet of Things, carpentry, and occupational health and safety facilities.

Importantly, the delegation met female beneficiaries of GRIT scholarships for 2025/2026, who described how the scholarships supported their education and enabled them to enter technical and vocational specialisations. This supplies dated evidence of the partnership’s practical support for women’s entry into technical education.

Official report: GRIT delegation visit and female scholarship beneficiaries.

3. Scholarships, Application Information and Financial Empowerment

ANNU publicises scholarship and development opportunities for women, making information about eligibility, application procedures and available support accessible through its official channels. Some opportunities are specific to STEM; others support women’s access to higher education across disciplines.

STEM-specific opportunities

Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future, 2025/2026. The University published a call on 8 October 2024 for women pursuing doctoral or postdoctoral research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is an earlier announcement for the 2025/2026 opportunity, retained as contextual evidence of targeted publicity.

Official announcement.

TechWomen 2025. Published on 22 December 2024, with an application deadline of 7 January 2025, the University’s announcement invited Palestinian women working in STEM to apply for professional exchange and mentoring. The programme targeted women professionals with a bachelor’s degree and relevant experience. It supports women’s STEM career development and complements the University’s prospective-student outreach.

Official TechWomen announcement.

Wider scholarships for women

Salam Scholarships for Palestinian Women. ANNU retained and publicised opportunities supporting Palestinian women’s higher education, including its 9 December 2024 announcement and 27 February 2024 announcement.

On 18 November 2025, ANNU published a further call for the 2026/2027 Salam Scholarships at Ulster University, including application information and advertised online information sessions for 3 December 2025 and 3 January 2026. The announcement described support for tuition, accommodation, travel and living costs. These scholarships are open across disciplines and are supplementary evidence of women-focused application support, rather than exclusively scholarships for underrepresented subjects.

Official 2025 call and application guidance.

Clarke Education Foundation collaboration. The University’s report of 18 February 2024 describes an agreement supporting higher education opportunities for Palestinian women, particularly refugee women facing financial barriers. This earlier partnership provides additional context for the University’s wider access measures.

Official partnership report.

Further information is available through the University’s Women’s Empowerment Schemes and Scholarships Office announcements.

4. Mentorship, Networks and Women’s Participation in Technical and Research Fields

ANNU complements recruitment outreach with mentoring, professional development and opportunities to engage with female researchers and technical leaders. Its Women’s Mentoring Schemes provide additional information on this support.

The Role of Women in Scientific Research — 29–30 April 2025

ANNU organised this two-day event in partnership with the University of Naples Federico II, supported by SULIEIA, and in collaboration with the AIChE student branch in Chemical Engineering and the Entrepreneurs Society.

The programme addressed barriers facing women researchers and included discussions, practical workshops, LinkedIn professional development, World Café activities and opportunities to exchange experience. Its involvement of engineering and technology staff and students provides a relevant example of collaboration supporting women’s participation in academic and technical fields.

This event is supporting evidence of an enabling academic environment; the school outreach and GRIT examples above provide the more direct evidence of encouraging prospective female applicants.

Original English report.

Arabic report, published 1 May 2025.

5. Publicity, Female Role Models and Technical Success Stories

The University publishes women’s achievements in engineering, computing and research, providing visible examples of study and career possibilities for prospective applicants.

Lama Dweikat, Computer Engineering — 28 September 2025: ANNU published her Erasmus+ training experience at Paris-Saclay University, where she developed an Android application for the Fink astronomy platform. Read her experience.
Hiba Al-Masri, Building Engineering — 16 June 2025: ANNU reported her recognition by the American Society of Civil Engineers with a 2025 student leadership certificate, highlighting women’s leadership in an engineering student society. Read the report.
Dr. Maryam Hmoudah — 28 April 2025: ANNU publicised her dual doctorate and Schlumberger support for water-treatment research, illustrating an advanced engineering research pathway. Read the report.
Dr. Manal Badrasawi — 6 March 2025: ANNU reported her OWSD–Elsevier Foundation award for inclusive health research. This broadens the visibility of women scientists, while not establishing underrepresentation in her discipline. Read the report.

These public stories support awareness and inspiration. They should be read alongside the documented recruitment and access activities, rather than as evidence that applications increased.

6. Women’s Technical Development in Agriculture and the Agri-Food Sector

ANNU also works with partners to expand women’s technical and entrepreneurial opportunities in agriculture.

The Green Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development Forum, held on 21 June 2025, was organised with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) under a project supporting Palestinian young women and men in the agri-food sector. The InnoPark report records more than 222 trainees, 77% female, receiving 70 hours of training, with practical placements for more than 130 trainees.

Training included sustainable agriculture, value chains and green entrepreneurship, alongside exposure to applications of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality. This is supporting evidence of women’s technical skills development and collaboration in agriculture, rather than a report of undergraduate recruitment.

InnoPark report, published 30 July 2025.

7. Participation and Continued Outreach

Women account for more than half of students in seven of the ten faculty categories. Engineering and Information Technology, and Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, remain below gender parity at faculty level. Business and Communication is close to parity.

For the academic year 2025, women represented 42.2% of students in Engineering and Information Technology and 45.7% in Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, The University continued targeted efforts to encourage women’s entry into technical fields through girls’ school guidance, collaborative outreach and scholarship support. Documented 2025 examples include the Al-Yarmouk Girls’ Secondary School visit and GRIT scholarship beneficiaries for 2025/2026.

These activities demonstrate continued institutional action to encourage applications.

The University’s Tracking Gender Application, Acceptance and Entry Rates page provides related information on monitoring women’s access to higher education.

8. Additional Continuity Updates — 2026

The following activities demonstrate continued attention to women’s participation after the 2025 reporting year.

Recognition of schoolgirls in robotics, AI and innovation — 17 June 2026

ANNU welcomed and honoured female pupils from Talae’ Al-Amal Schools for achievements in robotics, artificial intelligence and innovation competitions. This girls-focused engagement recognises technical achievement and provides an additional example of the University’s connection with prospective female learners.

Official report.

L’Oréal–UNESCO For Women in Science — 21 April 2026

The University published an application call for the Levant Regional Young Talents Programme 2026, supporting women at doctoral and postdoctoral stages in science for 2026/2027. The announcement followed Ministry of Education and Higher Education correspondence and provided application instructions and the 31 May 2026 deadline.

Official fellowship announcement.

9. Related News

The following original links are retained as additional information on women’s participation, research and student activities. Their relevance varies; they supplement the direct outreach and collaboration evidence above.

10. Programme Information and Application Support

Women considering engineering, computing, agriculture or technical education can explore the University’s undergraduate programmes, Faculty of Agriculture website, and Hisham Hijjawi College of Technology, alongside the scholarship and mentoring resources linked above.

Through targeted school guidance, women-focused technical education partnerships, scholarship publicity and visible female role models, ANNU demonstrates institutional action to encourage women’s entry into underrepresented fields. These measures support SDG 5: Gender Equality, alongside SDG 4: Quality Education and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.

You are here

Encouraging Women’s Enrollment in Underrepresented Fields