The delegation was received by Dr. Mohammad Al-Amleh, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Khaled Barham, Director of the Korean-Palestinian IT Institute of Excellence at An-Najah, Mr. Khaled Mufleh, Acting Director of the Public Relations Department at the University, Miss. Aya Jabri from the International Office and Mrs. Noor Hashayka from the PR Department.

The visit aimed at discussing possible means of mutual cooperation between the Korean Government and An-Najah National University to learn more about business development opportunities in Palestine.

Prof. Natsheh welcomed the delegation and briefed them on An-Najah’s history, students, staff, academic programmes and campuses. He talked in detail about the political and financial obstacles that higher education in Palestine faces, in terms of attracting international students and staff to Palestinian universities. He also talked about the University Hospital and its role in providing students and the Palestinian community with top quality medical services, and the Arabic for Non-Native Speakers Institute at An-Najah.

He added that the University mission is to provide high quality education, encourage scientific research projects, and serve the Palestinian community. He also talked about the cooperation agreements the University has with a number of European and American universities, in terms of developing joint research projects and boosting student and staff exchange programmes. He then thanked the Korean Government for supporting the Palestinian people and invited the delegation to expand cooperation in different fields.

Prof. Natsheh also welcomed developing more relations with Korean Universities, upgrading academic and research exchanges, as well as student exchanges and talked about An-Najah’s interest in having native Korean speakers teach the language at An-Najah. He also talked about the Korean Palestinian IT Institute of Excellence and the programmes it offers and mentioned the importance maintaining cooperation relations with Korean universities to benefit from the different programmes they offer.

Finally, he talked about the University's academic achievements, most important of which is being ranked as the 1st Palestinian university, according to Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, and obtaining ABET accreditation for nine engineering programmes.

In turn, Mr. Choi stressed the importance of academic cooperation between Palestine and Korea, as well as the Korean role in offering aid to the Palestinian people. He added that the Korean Government is aspiring to build further relations with Palestine. He stated that his country is always keen on providing support for Palestinians especially in the field of information technology.

The delegation then headed to the New Campus where they met Dr. Khaled Barham at the Korean-Palestinian IT Institute of Excellence to discuss the arrangements of the upcoming Korean Cultural Day which will be held at An-Najah.

At the end of the visit, the delegation was given a tour of the New Campus where they went to the Media Centre, the Faculty of Fine Arts Museum and the Korean Palestinian IT Institute of Excellence.