une 13^th. Under the auspices of His Excellency, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, An-Najah National University held the 31^st graduation ceremony at the Prince Turki Bin Abdul Aziz Theater, New Campus.

Attendees included Dr. Hussein Al-A’raj, as representative of President Mahmoud Abbas, Mrs. Lamis Alami, Minister of Education and Higher Education, Mr. Sabih Al-Masri, Chair of the Board of Trustees at An-Najah, Members of the Board, Prof. Rami Hamdallah, President of An-Najah University, in addition to members in the Executive Committee at the Palestinian National Authority, members in the Palestinian Legislative Council, a number of governors, mayors, representatives of several official and public institutions, several international diplomats working at the Palestinian National Authority, as well as the top students and their families.

At the beginning of the ceremony, Mr. Al-Masri delivered a speech in which he welcomed the attendants, the students and their families and said: “I welcome you here today at the annual ceremony that our University holds to honor its dear students who represent the next generation of leaders and contributors to the development of Palestine”.

Moreover, Mr. Al-Masri said that the University realizes the scale of missions and responsibilities it holds which proved to be difficult and interrelated. He explained that the Board of Trustees works around the clock to make decisions that would facilitate the administrative missions and procedures needed to run the University’s work smoothly and successfully. This is done to identify the main goals and implement the strategy that the University adopts to develop its human resources, update the study plans and the teaching methods, raise awareness, reinforce communication with the different institutions locally, and participate in solving the various problems and crises that the country faces.

Finally, Mr. Al-Masri valued the efforts of the University’s administration and employees at the different departments which led to the development of the University and the achievements of its strategic goals. The joint and dedicated work of all the employees and staff has also made the University assume a pride-of-place position among the different educational institutions locally, regionally and internationally.

He also congratulated the students and their families on this great achievement and excellence in their study and wished them a successful future.

Following Mr. Al-Masri’s speech, Prof. Hamdallah delivered a speech in which he thanked President Mahmoud Abbas for his efforts in making the Palestinian reconciliation a reality between Fatah and Hamas political parties. He then thanked all the attendants for their participation and congratulated the students and their families.

Prof. Hamdallah also said: “We celebrate today the graduation of another class of An-Najah students after being equipped with the skills and experience needed to enable them to meet the requirements of the job market”. “We are proud of our students who have contributed to the building of our country and took part in various projects in the different Arab countries such as the Burj Khalifa project in which several engineers from An-Najah worked”. Prof. Hamdallah explained.

Moreover, Prof. Hamdallah pointed out the An-Najah seeks to compete, not only on the local level, but also on the regional and international levels as well and believes that university work in unlimited and can always be taken to further steps. Therefore, the University’s administration seeks to make An-Najah among the leading universities that is unique in its academic performance and reputation. This, Prof. Hamdallah explained, requires dedication and continuous work on the part of the employees and staff in order to overcome any obstacles and challenges.

In his speech, Prof. Hamdallah highlighted the main developments and achievements that the University has made over the last years. Among these was the University’s strategy to send more than 150 students to pursue their higher studies at the different international universities. Also, the University has worked on introducing new majors and study subjects including the Bachelor Degree program in Urban Planning Engineering and a Master Degree program in Woman Studies which would start by the beginning of the next academic year.

In addition to this, other programs such as the Master Degree Programs in Public Relations, Public Administration and Pharmaceutical Sciences have been added. Also, Bachelor programs in TV and Radio, Material Science, Energy and Environment Engineering, Public Relations and Communication, as well as a PhD program in Physics were also introduced.

Furthermore, Prof. Hamdallah said that with respect to development and scientific quality, the University has gained high ranks locally, regionally and internationally as it was ranked first in Palestine, fifth in the Arab world and number 1011 globally from among 20,000 universities that entered the Webometrics ranking.

Regarding international evaluation programs, An-Najah has joined many of these programs such as the Institutional Evaluation Program (IEP) which is run by a group of experts in the field of building European international standards needed for the development of strategic administration and quality. Prof. Hamdallah informed that the final report of the evaluation will be released in August 2011 and said that the evaluation team expressed its admiration by the University’s infrastructure, the services it provides to the society and the strategic plan it adopts.

Additionally, Prof. Hamdallah explained that the University held workshops to apply the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model (EFQM) in which Vice Presidents and President Assistants from An-Najah participated. Through this Model, An-Najah has obtained good evaluations despite it was the first time for An-Najah to undergo such evaluation through such a model. Moreover, the University participated in the German Evaluation program (ASTIN).

Moreover, Prof. Hamdallah spoke about the buildings of the Faculties of Medicine and Nursing which have a total area of 8,000 square meters with a cost of 6 million USDs and the National Teaching Hospital that was designed based on top international standards with a total area of 68,000 square meters and a capacity of 600 beds. Work is in progress to equip these buildings with the latest medical and scientific equipments so as to provide the best training to students and offer inexpensive medical treatment and services to the locals.

“Based on its philosophy and message, An-Najah University continues to offer education opportunities to more than 20,000 students and more who join it every year”. Prof. Hamdallah added.

Furthermore, he said: “An-Najah promises to continue progressing and growing and we call upon our brothers and friends around the world to continue supporting us and joining us in our quest to create a better reality for our people”. It is important to support scientific research in Palestine through providing all the requirements this type of research needs and to offer scientific awards to researchers to encourage them to conduct continuous work.

Finally, Prof. Hamdallah thanked President Mahmoud Abbas and his staff for supporting the University in all fields and valued the efforts of the University’s Board of Trustees in leading the academic and administrative work through making most of the critical and pivotal decisions. He also congratulated the students on their success and wished them a successful future.

In her speech, Mrs. Alami expressed her pride of the University which, as most Palestinian universities do, contributed to the development of the Palestinian society in the different fields of life. She also valued the work and efforts made by the University’s administration and staff which allowed An-Najah to become a leading educational institution.

She added that based on the Ministry of Education’s realization of the developmental role that universities play it considered increasing the amount of financial support and allocations that are presented to the Palestinian universities so as to increase the number of students who benefit from the loans system. Regarding the developmental aspect, Mrs. Alami said that the Ministry works on dedicating all of its relations with the different international institutions to conduct more than 45 different projects through the Ministry’s Fund with a cost of 15 million USDs. She finally congratulated the students and their families on their graduation.

Dr. Alaraj delivered a speech on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas in which he congratulated the students on their success and their achievement. He added that all the Palestinians are proud of this unique educational institution which has made substantial advancements and achieved great developments over the last years; as a result, it became once of the leading universities locally, regionally and internationally. This is clear, he explained, through the recent ranking it received by the Webometrics.

Moreover, Dr. Alaraj explained that the Palestinian leadership has realized the importance of human resources and began establishing various educational institutions that provide training for individuals in the different study fields.

After that, the top student, Riham Isam Said Thaher from the Faculty of Science, delivered a speech in which she said that this day marks the conclusion of the university study and the beginning of a new stage. After all that hard work and dedication, we have achieved what we were seeking.

She also thanked her parents and teachers who supported her throughout her study and helped her achieve what she has achieved so far. She greatly valued the efforts that her teachers made to equip her with necessary skills and experience to become a successful individual and a contributor to the development of her country.

Finally, she presented her success to her parents and to every mother and father who dedicated their lives to support their children.

At the end of the ceremony, Dr. Alaraj and Prof. Hamdallah distributed the certificates among the graduates.