New Standards for Education Classification in Smart Universities

By: Ibrahim Eldeeb, Mai Shaheen and Salma Yassin

CAIRO, April 6 (SEE)- Dr. Mansoor Al Awar, Chairman of the Governing Board of the United Nations Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO) and President of Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU) in UAE, told (SEE) that Arab educational experts have set, for the first time, new standards for education classification in smart universities world-wide.

Al Awar made this statement during the opening session of the first Global Forum for Higher Education and Scientific Research currently hosted by Egypt in the presence of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

He said that 90 days ago, the new standards’ document was signed by Dr. Amr Ezzat Salama, secretary general of the Union of Arab Universities, Amr Abu Al-Ala, representative of the Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ANQAHE).

The document was also signed by representatives of European commission for the adoption of distance education beside Australian, New Zealand and Asian accreditation bodies for distance learning.

Al Awar pointed out that one of the main reasons behind his participation in the current Egyptian forum is to announce these new standards.

He stressed that educational process has completely changed and teaching was replaced by more effective training techniques.

“Instead of giving direct information to students, teachers started to train them how to get new information by themselves,” he clarified.

He confirmed that in order to guarantee an effective educational system, there must be a link between students, teachers, curriculums and the overall educational environment.

He added, “Setting curriculums became a participatory process between professors and students.”

Regarding educational environment, it has also witnessed so many changes; as instead of depending on classrooms, teaching processes are now taking place in cafes, on the beach and so many other new places.

“Rigid educational rules have been broken, distant learning has become more familiar and means of transportation are no longer an obstacle to good education,” he stressed.

Finally, Al Awar stated that “HBMSU” has signed cooperation protocols with both the Egyptian E-learning University (EELU) and Alexandria University in Egypt to set new joint educational programs and training courses for teaching staff.

It is worth mentioning that “HBMSU” aims at graduating entrepreneurs and not employees and it

The university includes 4 faculties represented in Management and Quality faculty; the one of a kind in the whole world, Health and Environmental Management, Intelligent Education and College of Artificial Intelligence.