The seminar was part of the Tempus RecoNow project and aimed at discussing recognition procedures in ENPI South countries.

RecoNow project aims at improving and increasing the quality of student mobility within Middle Eastern and European higher education systems. It also tackles poor recognition of foreign qualifications as one of the main challenges that hinder international student mobility.

The seminar included speeches by Dr. Mohammad El-Amleh, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dr. Nedal Jayousi, Representative of the EU Erasmus+ Project in Palestine.

Dr. Imad Ibrik, Coordinator of EU Projects at An-Najah discussed the progress made on the Tempus project in Palestine, the Tempus projects implemented at An-Najah and the RecoNow’s objectives, activities and outcomes.

Dr. Mohammed Al-Subu', Chairman of the Accreditation & Quality Assurance Commission; Mr. Mahmoud Amarneh from the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education and Ms Wafa Triek, Head of Processing Unit at CIEP French Enic Naric Centre tackled several issues on the national report with regard to the higher education system in Palestine and the accreditation process.

Both Mr. Abdullah Naser, Dean of Admission and Registration and Engineer Sami Saddar form the Quality Assurance Unit at An-Najah and Dr. Khaled Al-Takhman, Director of the Admission and Registration Department at Birzeit University explained the benefits of international accreditations and the transfer process in both An-Najah and Birzeit.

Finally, Ms Triek and Mr. Filippo Sartor, Head of North Africa and Middle East Unit at the University of Bologna talked about transnational education and international recognition in ENPI South countries and the assessment process in educational and distance learning institutions.

The seminar resulted in a number of recommendations most important of which was the periodical update for the national report taking into consideration the international developments made on higher education, the promotion of the project’s results and outcomes among Palestinian universities and the development of academic relations among them.

At the end of the seminar, representatives answered the attendees’ questions on the subject.

Notes:

The project's partners are: the University of Jordan; Petra University; Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT); the Jordanian Ministry of Higher Education; the University of Bologna, Italy; the University of Bordeaux, France and the University College Cork, Ireland in addition to other Palestinian universities.

The RecoNow project runs from December 2013 until May 2016 in the framework of the Tempus Programme.

Main project activities:

• Organization of a blended course for government officials from Jordan and Palestine to provide them with the knowledge of EU higher education systems, to understand recognition practices and to increase their skills to develop and run National Recognition Centres
• Elaboration of National Reports focusing on education systems in Jordan and Palestine, on Higher Education Institutions, their programmes and qualifications in these countries with the aim of facilitating the circulation of clear and complete information, useful both to recognition officers and students
• Organization of a training for university staff from Jordanian and Palestinian universities to foster their capacity to carry out academic recognition procedures in order to put in place effective University Recognition Centres and to increase the cooperation among universities on higher education issues
• Elaboration of guidelines for evaluating non-traditional, trans-national education and distance learning institutions and their qualifications in order to foster up-to-date recognition practices that can be applied even to latest and cutting-edge education methods
• Promotion and sharing of the project final results through a publication that will be presented during two international conferences that take place in the first half of the year 2016, in Jordan and in Italy