Universities, NGOs and Arab and European political representatives start the 3rd Edition of Arab-European Conference on High Education

This edition’s theme is the social mission of the universities, including refugees’ integration.
This edition’s theme is the social mission of the universities, including refugees’ integration.
(24/05/2016)

Academics from Arab and European universities will participate in the third Arab-European Conference on Higher Education (AECHE) on May 26 and 27 at the University of Barcelona. This editionʼs theme is the social mission of the universities, including refugeesʼ integration and conflict resolution, and among the participants there will be university responsibles from Syria, Palestine and Lebanon.

This edition’s theme is the social mission of the universities, including refugees’ integration.
This edition’s theme is the social mission of the universities, including refugees’ integration.
24/05/2016

Academics from Arab and European universities will participate in the third Arab-European Conference on Higher Education (AECHE) on May 26 and 27 at the University of Barcelona. This editionʼs theme is the social mission of the universities, including refugeesʼ integration and conflict resolution, and among the participants there will be university responsibles from Syria, Palestine and Lebanon.

AECHEʼs opening act will take place on Thursday 26 at 9.30 h with the participation of the rector of the University of Barcelona, Dídac Ramírez, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency of Generalitat de Catalunya, Raül Romeva, the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and the General Secretary of Universities, Jorge Sainz-Gónzalez, together with Sultan Abu-Orabi, General Secretary of the Association of Arab Universities (AARU), and Lesley Wilson, General Secretary of the European Universities Association.

This conference edition will debate on the way to reinforce the role of universities as entities contributing to international and interregional dialogue, and to what point they can participate in conflict resolution. Regarding the latter topic, there will be a session with the participation of the Minister of Higher Education in Egipt, Ashraf Sihi and Sinead OʼGorman, member of the association Scholars at Risk which looks after human rights among the members of the university community worldwide. Another session will be dedicated to the university contribution to the challenge of the refugeesʼ integration and its implications for the institutions. There will be the participation of university representatives from Hungary and Germany, and Mohammed Najeeb Abdul-Wahed, ex-Minister of Higher Education in Syria. There will also be the participation of Viktoriya Voropayeva, who will explain the experience of how the Donetsk National University was transferred to Krasnoarmiisʼk due to the violence from the war in Ukraine since 2014.
 

Other topics of the session are the identification and implementation of funding tools for effective internationalization strategies; which skills the students would have to acquire in order to face new challenges caused by transformations and crisis affecting both regions -Europe and Arab countries- and how universities contribute to social development and peopleʼs education. There will also be a session dedicated to treat dialogue perspectives on higher education between the European Union and the Arab world. Likewise, there is a space programed to show examples of good cooperation practicals between Arab and European universities, as well as promoting bilateral relations between the different universities participating in this meeting and signing collaboration agreements.

AECHE is an AARU and EUA joint framework promoted by the University of Barcelona, which holds the permanent Secretary. It is an association to promote dialogue, mutual understanding, knowledge exchange and a greater cooperation between Arab and European universities. The first AECHE conference took place in the University of Barcelona, in 2013, and the second one in Amman (Jordan) in 2014.