March 21^st. An-Najah University participated in the 3^rd EMUNI Research Souk titled “Innovation and Employability –The Universities’ Challenge” which was organized under the patronage of the Euro-Mediterranean University and Beirut Arab University. Besides An-Najah, more than 15 universities from the Euro-Mediterranean countries participated simultaneously in the conference via the internet.

Participants in the opening session included: the President of the Euro-Mediterranean University, the President of Beirut Arab University, the President of the University of Notre Dame, President of St. Joseph’s University, the Minister of Higher Education in Beirut, in addition to others.

The opening session featured a number of speeches in which the participants focused on the importance of communication between universities and the necessity to reinforce exchange and cultural diversity between the Euro-Mediterranean universities. In this respect, the President of the Euro-Mediterranean University welcomed the participants and spoke about the importance of holding such conference especially that it deals this year with an important issue which is innovation and employability.

The conference consisted of a number of sessions whereby each university was given the chance to speak about itself and many related issues. In its session, An-Najah University was represented by Dr. Sam Alfoqahaa, Coordinator of the conference and Acting Director of the Public Relations Department at the University, who thanked the University’s administration represented by An-Najah President Prof. Rami Hamdallah for his continuous support to build unique relationships with the different international institutions.

A representative from the International Office at An-Najah gave a speech in which she pointed out that the Euro-Mediterranean University is a unique institution because of the extensive and distinctive network of more than 142 universities from more than 73 Euro-Mediterranean countries it has. Those universities are all meeting to stress one common idea which is “Education”, Mrs. Daher explained, and that this conference represents a good chance for the students to reinforce dialogue, cultural understanding, tolerance and interaction between them and helps eliminate any prejudice or prejudgments that exist  between the different societies.

Professor Jawad Fatayer, An-Najah President Assistant for Graduate Affairs, presented a work paper titled “Graduates’ Competency: Challenges and Potentials” in which he discussed the work program and the planned strategy required to build the competency of graduates to make them more acceptable to employers in the work market. This, Professor Fatayer explained, can be achieved through building the personal skills and potentials of the students which include various aspects including the emotional and social intelligence, as well as loyalty to the society.

On his part, Dr. Jalal Dabbeek, Director of the Earth Sciences and Seismic Engineering Center at An-Najah, presented a work paper titled “Risk Assessment and the Reduction of Disasters Risks: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters” in which he gave a full explanation of the analysis of natural and seismic risks which represent one of the main priorities of the Euro-Mediterranean countries. Dr. Dabbeek also spoke about the seismic risks that the Arab world in general and Palestine in particular are facing pointing out the fact that the region is vulnerable to seismic hazards, especially in light of the insufficient capabilities available that are needed to face that threat.

In the session assigned to students’ participation which was headed by Dr. Majeed Mansour, Head of the Marketing Department at An-Najah, the students presented a number of work papers on various issues. Student Raghad Canaan presented a work paper titled “The Extent to which An-Najah National University Contributes to the Development of the Local Society from the Point View of Heads of Academic Departments at An-Najah National University”. Another work paper was titled “Employment Opportunities for An-Najah Graduates” by Sahar Obaid. Also, both Rawan Hamdan and Yasmeen Al-Saket participated with a work paper titled “Problems Facing Graduates in the Palestinian Work Market”.

Dr. Mansour on his part spoke about the importance of this conference describing it as a meeting point for students and professors to promote mutual dialogue and exchange of ideas between different communities. He also stressed the necessity to support communication between youth especially university students via the different communication means. Moreover, he called for more emphasis on research work and said that regulations of the departments and faculties must be flexible enough to enable those faculties and department to develop their plans and programs to meet the needs of the local society. This would help in bridging the gap between academic education and the work market.

At the end of the conference, Dr. Alfoqahaa thanked all the participants for their participation in this event and valued their time to present their ideas and share them among each other.