By: Ibrahim Eldeeb
CAIRO, Nov. 5 (SEE) – “New Giza”, a university which though being three years old, proved an outstanding capacity to compete and secure a partnership agreement with one of the best universities in the world: “UCL”, which is placed seventh globally.
The university has recently been selected as a center for UN sustainable development in the field of health.
Dr. Ahmad Sameh Farid, the university's president explained more in the following interview:
• How was New Giza University selected by the UN in terms of fulfillment of sustainable development goals?
Sustainable development is the base for improving people’s’ lives. That’s why the UN has listed 17 themes for sustainable development which include health, education, women empowerment, poverty eradication. Upon an advice from my daughter, an international lawyer, we signed up in this initiative, and we were enrolled at this program which is supervised by Dr. Mahmoud Mohy ElDin, first deputy of World Bank President.
Last month, we were selected as a UN center for sustainable development in the field f health. The main criterion of selection was the ability to raise the awareness of the society with regard to significance of health issues. The university students, who are visiting certain social communities, do spread this knowledge.
In January, we will launch “New Giza Hospital for serving community”, which is going to be interested in primary health, raising health awareness and train students to serve the community.
How will the university benefit from getting enrolled in such international programs?
The enrollment in such program allows getting research partnerships, which means that our research projects are going to get funds. I mean by research projects here: those on population for example. These kinds of researches are going to help decision makers in Egypt to come to the right choice.
The researches are principally directed to the decision makers in Egypt, because these projects aim to help countries and not the UN itself. The UN facilitates expertise exchange among countries, funding researches, etc. We understand that the value about any project is whether it is sustainable, and how this sustainability would be preserved: this is the main goal of the UN program.
How can Egypt's health sector get improved through such program?
Well, this is taking place through cooperation with the state. A center for limiting health dangers from smoke, alcohol, sugar and other products was launched. The state can never cure 100 million people, for the high costs, but it can raise the awareness about these dangers. This is part of the UN cooperation with the state.
How does the university plan to improve health at its surrounding community?
We already have an ongoing plan implementation. We train students at first grade to do field visits for the governmental health care centers to observe the real conditions in those centers. They return and put their own perspective on how to develop those centers and solve the problems that he observed.
Discussions are then held with officials at the UN and the university to design developments plans in this regard.This kind of critical thinking that we train the student to develop is certainly going to make a difference.
This indeed proves that medicine is mainly about a message and role before being a professional. Professionals are too many, but creating a message in the mind of the student is the essential role.
How would the university open new gates to Africa?
We plan to start by offering scholarship for African students as directed by the state because we are, eventually, serving the country and we understand that there are certain African states that are very important to Egypt. We will start offering scholarships to them next year.
What are the main researches that are being conducted currently in the university?
We have an entirely independent research administration that is not associated to any faculty. We do not have many projects because we are still a new institution, but we have two main ongoing projects in Microbiology with a German cooperation.
Does the university apply the system of faculties or academic programs?
It is a university that constitutes of departments and not faculties. Each one has a program in itself; such as health economies. This is a program that links schools of economics, medicine, pharmacy, and all health relevant schools. Another program is information management which links schools of business administration, engineering, computers.
You can also find a program about energy management which links again schools of business administration, and all relevant schools about energy.
We do not work at the typical programs, as the job market is already full, therefore new specializations should be supplied.
Is there a certain place in the university that do researches about the job market?
There are already conducted researches in this regard, done especially by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. In addition, Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, minister of high education assigned a certain committee with this mission. We already found those specializations exist, but the problem was with the quality of the graduates, that’s why there are programs designed for preparing graduates for the job market.
What are the specializations which the market is already full of?
Well, the typical lawyers, not the international one. There is no lawyer capable of making a contract with a big firm. That’s why “New Giza University” is going to include new specializations.
How do you assess the idea of a unified exam for medicine schools and make the duration study years only five?
Well, the main idea about medicine is training. As long as the training period is long, there will be better performance whether before or after graduation. Accordingly, setting 2-year-training after graduation was for practical reasons. I consider increasing years of training at the expense of studying years as a good idea.
What are the university's short and long run plans?
We are moving into the next phase which is to establish 5 more buildings as extensions for our schools, in addition to school of engineering. Currently we have schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, commerce and finance, and business administration. Next year, a school for economics and political science will start operating, and then one of engineering and information technology.
How do you evaluate the new education system?
As long as the environment itself doesn’t change, the results will be limited. How can I give a student a tablet while there are 100 students in the school classroom, half of them have nowhere to sit. This environment is not helpful at all to the education process. Accordingly, we need to take care of the place itself, which is all called the educational environment. The tablet is just a tool. We need also to change the educational contents.
Translated by: Yassmine ElSayed
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