Around 2800 Students are graduating this Year from An-Najah University
In a press conference that was held in his office at the Old Campus on Sunday, June 12th, Prof. Rami Hamdallah, President of An-Najah National University, stated that the University will commence its graduation ceremonies for its 31st class of graduates on Monday, June 13th under the auspices of His Excellency Mahmoud Abbas President of the Palestinian National Authority.
In the press conference Prof. Hamdallah said An-Najah is now competing not only on the local and regional levels, but also on the international level as a leading educational institution. He added that among the main strategies of the University is to prepare the next generation of human resources who would assume its responsibilities toward the University on the academic and administrative levels.
Prof. Hamdallah also explained that there are more than 150 students from An-Najah who pursue their higher study at the different international universities. Moreover, He informed that the University Administration is considering restructuring its faculties to cope with and meet the requirements of the international higher education. The University has recently restructured the faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Optometry, Laboratory Medicine and many others and integrated them into one faculty under the name “The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences”. He also explained that An-Najah is the only university in the Arab world that is currently working on restructuring its faculties and shall work on restructuring the faculties of human sciences, engineering, information technology, agricultural sciences and veterinary medicine soon.
Regarding other achievements the President said the University has finished the buildings of the Faculties of Nursing, Midwifery and Optometry with an area that exceeds 8000 square meters and will be ready by the beginning of the next academic year 2011/2012.
Following that, Prof, Hamdallah spoke about the many academic programs that were introduced recently to the University including Master Degree in Woman Studies and the B.A Degree program in Urban and Regional Planning at the Faculty of Engineering. Furthermore, the University has requested the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to grant it accreditation of a number of majors including the PhD in Physics in cooperation with many European universities, Master program in Energy Engineering, Master program in Public Relations, Master program in Pharmaceutical Sciences, B.A in TV and Radio and others.
He also spoke about the scientific centers that the University has which aim to serve the Palestinian society in various fields of life including the Center of Excellence in Learning and Teaching which is funded by the USAID, the Educational Resources Center and the Design of Steel Structures Center at the Faculty of Engineering. Regarding the new Teaching Hospital, Prof. Hamdallah informed that by the year 2012, the first three buildings of the Hospital will be delivered and explained that the new hospital will represent a huge stride and a substantial contribution to the health and medical fields in Palestine.
Over the last years, An-Najah has signed many agreements with different universities around the world whereby its students can pursue their higher studies and return back to Palestine to contribute to the development of their country and society.
The University has also opened a liaison office in the city of Baqa al-Gharbiyye in the Haifa District, northern Palestine so as to contact Palestinians who live there and giving them the chance to know about the University and its programs.
In addition to this, Prof. Hamdallah spoke about other issues including the many tenders that the University makes to supply its TV and Radio units for the purpose of developing media in Palestine. He also spoke about An-Najah Research Award that the University grants to researchers to encourage and promote research work among Palestinians. Furthermore, Prof. Hamdallah said that An-Najah has joined many international academic evaluation programs such as the Institutional European Program (IEP), and explained that An-Najah is one of the 700 universities that work on evaluating their academic programs through the IEP.
He also spoke about the loans program at An-Najah and explained that thousands of students benefit from this program every year.
