The visit aimed at following up on the HESPAL scholarship student enrollment process and build on it more cooperation. It also aimed at learning about the agreements An-Najah has with U.K universities, facilitate their work and reinforce the cooperation between the two parties.  

Prof. Natsheh welcomed the guests and thanked the Council for their consistent support to higher education in Palestine. He briefed them on An-Najah's academic programmes for BA, MA and PhD levels and the scholarships it offers in cooperation with the European and American universities.

He referred to the importance of making HESPAL support more PhD programmes as An-Najah nominates the graduates in areas of the labour market needs. Some of these areas are medical studies, economy, IT and languages. He discussed the possibility of offering exchange programmes through which the British academics train An-Najah professors to reach out to as many academic staff as possible as the University faces political and financial obstacles regarding staff mobility.

He also talked about the political and financial obstacles that face higher education in Palestine, most important of which is the difficulty to attract international expertise and students affecting the University international ranking standards. He finally stressed the importance of expanding the scope of HESPAL scholarships to include the academic staff and develop it on research level.

In turn, the delegation commended the University's hospitality and discussed the idea of establishing an online network to link Palestinians who graduated from U.K universities. They also stressed the importance of sustaining the cooperation with An-Najah through initiating new related to mobility programmes.

Notes:

The meeting was also attended by Dr. Mohammad Al-Amleh, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Abdelrahim Abu Safa, Scholarship Affairs Coordinator, Miss Aya Jabri from the International Office and Mrs. Shatha Jararaa from the PR Department.