• Middle East Thought Leadership Forum
    25th – 27thMay 2022 UK
  • EXPO 2020 Dubai UAE
    Lead sponsor for the 11th Gulf Education conference and Exhibition

About the event

Middle East Thought Leadership Forum 25th –27thMay 2022 UK

Following the hugely successful virtual Middle East Thought Leadership Forum that took place on 25-27 October 2020, we are delighted to announce that a live event will be taking place in London in 2022.

Following positive participant feedback, we are planning the second Middle East Thought Leadership Forum to take place on 25-27th May 2022. With huge Governmental support from the MENA region, we anticipate a high attendance form Ministers of Education, alongside education pioneers and practitioners from all over the globe.

As in previous years, Gulf Conferences will showcase developments in education, highlighting the great innovations taking place in the world of academia, creating a hub whereby an exchange of best practices, expertise and insight can be realised. Discussions at the conference will serve to guide the development of education in institutions and countries throughout the region and will provide the perfect environment whereby attendees can seek to create successful and long-serving international partnerships.

Why participate at the Middle East Thought Leadership Forum?

Present your business to the Middle Eastern education, government, corporates, enterprises and professional business potential universities’ directors, academic, IT, VLE, Purchasing Officers, Ministers of education, Heads of Quality Assurance Agencies, and other top government officials.

Inclusion of your products and services in digital reference resources for universities and ministries in the Arabian Region.

Gain the right support, research, and due diligence to help your business make easy contracts with government support.

Increased marketing opportunities including visibility on the event website and associated marketing materials.

Present the latest innovations and new products or services to pertinent audiences and showcase your expertise and capabilities.

An opportunity to build and reinforce strategic partnerships and relationships.

Book private business meetings with selected potential partners from the MENA Industry.

Reinforce your organization’s brand and build brand awareness amongst a relevant audience.

Network with industry colleagues and key decision-makers.

Features of the 2022 Event The Awards

The Awards

At the live Middle East Thought Leadership Forum we hope to give recognition to progressive and innovative institutions who are striving to make advancements in their teaching programmes; resources and facilities; and their academic positioning.

One-to-One Meeting Schedule

At this live event a systemised booking system will allow you to book face to face meetings with key professionals within education including heads of ministries, universities, and key decision-makers from companies’ partners.

  • Delegates can request up to 20-minutes of one-to-one meetings via meeting scheduling systems.
  • There will be 3 spots per hour.

Advisory board

Mr. David Lock
Director of International and UK Projects at the Leadership Foundation
more
HE Prof. Amr Ezzat Salama
Secretary General of the Association of Arab Universities
more
Dr. Khalid Al-afari
General manager of Career Guidance & Recruitment Center at (TVTC) Saudi Arabia
more
Dr. Tayeb A. Kamali
Vice Chancellor, Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE
more
Dr. John Law
Higher Education Advisor, British Council
more
Dr Aisha Al-Azemi
Supreme Council of Education, Kuwait
more
Mr. Hanny Alshazly
Vice President, Middle East & Africa Ellucian
more
Professor. Mohamed Loutfi
President and Vice-Chancellor of the British University in Egypt
more
Mr. Carl-Johan Westring
Vice President, EF Education First
more
Prof. Ali Shams El Din
Partner Allied Consultants Group - ACG
more
Mr. Ashwin Fernandes
Regional Director ‐ Middle East, North Africa & South Asia - QS
more
Dr. Amir Dhia
Director General of UBT Executive Education and ELA
more

Agenda

Agenda

This year’s agenda will continue to progressively support institutions to strategize and provide the best and most diverse curricula and facilities for today’s student ensuring every possible type of education provision,

The programme will include several dynamic opportunities for networking alongside the main agenda with an exhibition, workshops and a Gala Dinner as well as individual bookable appointments with relevant colleagues.

Drawing on the success from the first Middle East Thought Leadership Forum – the virtual event comprised of 3500 delegates, 44 keynote speakers and participation by more than 50 countries. Feedback has shown that there is a high demand for this to be realised via a live event.

The event will remain under the Patronage of the Secretary General of the Association of Arab Universities and includes the presence of Ministers of Education of the Arab League and delegates from over 400 universities. The agenda will contain content continuing to explore the changing world of education provision and how institutions and students are adapting to apost-pandemic setting.

The event will be a dynamic forum at which education sector representatives from government, corporates, institutions andprofessional (buyers) and technology providers (sellers) come together to exchange and explore digital technology solutions/products & services from across Globe.

Conference themes

Access to, and the success of students in, tertiary education are issues of growing concern globally. The interface with schools, issues of equity and opening up to older students to acquire new skills and learning to keep pace with the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are just three of the issues. Micro-credentials, blended and online learning also provide opportunities and challenges.

Learning in the twenty-first century and the development of skills for the 4th Industrial revolution including critical thinking skills, arts education, technological literacy and others are increasingly more important and urgent topics on which tertiary education bodies should be leading. eLearning, previously seen as inferior, has shown its potential during the pandemic and is now being embraced more widely.

The development and sharing of knowledge has become possible and necessary in different ways through the pandemic but to what extent are educational establishments embracing these new methods and opportunities?

The future of internationalisation. Developing internationalisation strategies has become more challenging following the COVID pandemic and with growing concern about the climate emergency. So, has the purpose of internationalisation changed, or if not its purpose, the ways of achieving it? How can partnerships for the purposes of teaching and research operate effectively with less or without travel and how can a meaningful international experience be provided for students with fewer opportunities to travel? What about language learning and can curriculum developments and technological access to universities and programme providers from around the world continue to equip students to be global citizens?

The UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) are at the half-way stage of their implementation period. They, and the climate emergency both affect and provide significant opportunities for universities. In exercising their responsibility to society universities have a duty to engage in research and teaching to care for our planet. Engagement with the SDGs and involving staff and students in this work within and outside the curriculum enables universities to make both a current and future contribution.

The programme will be designed to support institutions to strategize and provide modern and effective curricula and opportunities for today’s students. It will contain inputs from international experts and civic leaders, including ministers and will include dynamic opportunities for networking alongside the main agenda with an exhibition, workshops and a Gala Dinner as well as individual bookable appointments with relevant colleagues.

Session 1
Introduction and keynote
Introduction to the Forum
David Lock
Director, Gulf Conferences, Forum Moderator
  • 10:00 - 10:10
Welcome and introduction by the Patron
HE Professor Dr. Amr Ezzat Salama
Secretary General, Association of Arab Universities
  • 10:10 - 10:30
Keynote: Higher Education – the next 10 years: a global perspective.
Professor Michael Murphy
President of the European University Association
  • 10:30 - 11:00
Questions and discussion
  • 11:00 - 11:30
Break
  • 11:30 - 12:00
Session 2
Access and Equity Keynote: Access and Equity: issues and responses
Professor Graeme Atherton,
Head of World Access to Higher Education Day and Head of the Centre for Inequality and Levelling Up (CEILUP) Director, National Education Opportunities Network (NEON)
  • 12:00 - 12:30
Ministerial Perspectives
featuring Ministers speaking on how access and equity issues and other issues covered during the Forum are being addressed in different countries
  • 12:30 - 13:00
Improving schools and learning opportunities
Lessons Learned from the Pandemic
Dr. Asmaa Al Fadala
Director of Research and Content Development, WISE
  • 13:00 - 13:30
Lunch Break
Exhibition Open
Virtual meeting rooms open
On-line sponsor presentations
  • 13:00 - 14:20
Session 3
Towards a more knowledgeable world
Keynotes
Kamran Kardan,
founder and Chief Executive Officer of Knowledge E

Martin Creel
Executive Director, SVP, Global Academic Consulting at Discovery Education

Samantha Miles
Strategic Advisor Training & Consulting, Knowledge E
  • 14:20 - 15:00
Interaction
Participants and presenters engage on the issues
  • 15:00 - 15:30
Break
  • 15:30 - 16:00
Session 4
Universities, Sustainability and the UN SDGs
Putting Sustainability at the heart of the university: a case study from Cairo.
Questions and discussion
Professor. Mohamed Loutfi,
President, British University in Egypt and VP of ARELEN
  • 16:00 - 16:40
Re-thinking Higher Education for Sustainability: how can HEIs integrate the SDGs?
D.r Narimane Hadj-Hamou,
Chief Executive Officer, CLICKS
  • 16:40 - 17:20
Questions
  • 17:20 - 17:30
Broadening digital access and supporting student wellbeing, through data-based decision making
James Gray
CEO and Founder Kortext
  • 17:30 - 18:00
Close of Day 1
  • 18:00
Session 5
Skills and knowledge for the 4th Industrial revolution

What skills and knowledge does the 4th Industrial revolution require?

Critical thinking
Salah Khalil
Founder of Macat
  • 10:00 - 10:30
Arts and creative industries and thinking
Tom Fleming
Director, Creative Consultancy

Dahlia Mahmoud
Consultant
  • 10:30 - 11:00
What teachers should know before preparing students for the 4th Industrial Revolution
Alex Beard
Head of the Global Learning Lab, Teach for All
  • 11:00 - 11:30
Break
  • 11:30 - 12:00
Session 6
ELearning: opportunities post-pandemic
eLearning: opportunities post-pandemic Chaired by
Hanny Alshazly
Vice President, Middle East & Africa, Ellucian
  • 12:00 - 13:10
Keynote
Professor Anas Ratib Alsoud
Assistant to the President for Foreign Affairs Director of the Global Engagement Center Professor of Informatics (E-Business and Commerce) Department of Electronic Business and Commerce Business School Al-Ahliyya Amman University - Jordan
  • 12:00 - 12:30
Responses from Ministers and discussion
  • 12:30 - 12:55
Connecting Instructional Designers with Content Creators
Hashem Taani
Director, Global Strategic Partnerships at Boclips
  • 12:55 - 13:10
Coursera Keynote: The Future of Learning and Work
Jeff Maggioncalda
CEO, Coursera
  • 13:10 - 13:30
Exhibition Open
Virtual meeting rooms open
On-line sponsor presentations
  • 13:30
Session 7
Internationalisation post pandemic Chaired by
Nick Cuthbert
Director of Research & Insight - the PIE
  • 14:30 - 15:30
Keynote
Dr. David Pilsbury
Chief Development Officer at Oxford International Education Group and Formerly Deputy Vice-Chancellor International, University of Coventry, UK
  • 14:30 - 15:00
Internationalisation after COVID
HE Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar,
Minister of Higher Education & Scientific Research, Egypt
  • 15:00 - 15:30
Developing internationalization strategies through effective partnerships for the purposes of research.
Professor Wafi Haj Majid
Professor at the Global University of Beirut
  • 15:30 - 15:45
Break
  • 15:45 - 16:15
Session 8
Responding to the challenges and opportunities
Debate: The Arab Region has unique challenges and opportunities, hence a bespoke ranking system is the need of the hour For the Motion
Dr. Bibi M. Alajmi
Graduate Program Director, Kuwait University, Kuwait

Dr. Karim Seghir
Chancellor, Ajman University, UAE
Against the motion

Dr. Ursula El Hage
Director of the Career and Placement Office, Saint Joseph University of Beirut, Lebanon

Dr. Ghassan Aouad
, President, Applied Science University, Bahrain
Moderator

Dr. Ashwin Fernandes
, Regional Director – MEA & South Asia, QS Quacquarelli Symonds
  • 16:15 - 17:00
Reflections From the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  • 17:00 - 17:20
Reflections of the Secretary General of the Association of Arab Universities
Professor. Amr Ezzat Salama
Secretary General of the Association of Arab Universities
  • 17:20 - 17:40
<
Close of Day 2
  • 17:40
Gala Dinner
  • 91:30
Session 9
Global Learning Innovations: Fireside chat on EdTech drawing on international experience
Svenia Busson
Co-founder and Chair, European Edtech Alliance
  • 10:00 - 10:30
Matching needs and technology: a framework
Dr. Anissa Moeini
CEO Goldstar Education
  • 10:30 - 11:00
Break
  • 11:00 - 11:30
Session 10
Developing a culture of innovaon in your university
Daniel Bacelic
Head of ISVs, Public sector, Amazon Web Services, Europe Middle East and Africa
  • 11:30 - 12:00
A model for post-pandemic Higher Education
Dr. Jameel Hasan
Acting Director Quality and Standards Bahrain Polytechnic

Dr. Fernando Senior
Learning Strategist
  • 12:00 - 12:30
Rethinking Assessment for Access and Success in Higher Education
Reem Al Buainain
Deputy CEO of Academic affairs at Bahrain Polytechnic
  • 12:30 - 13:00
Lunch
Exhibition Open
Virtual meeting rooms open On-line sponsor presentations
  • 13:00 - 14:00
Rebuilding of the bricks of our Fractured World and the Emergence of Global South Universities Association (GSUA) and the Global South Centre for Research Innovation Peace and Technology for Sustainable Development (G-SCRIPTS-D).
Abdul ‘Dewale Mohammed
Executive President of the Africa Asia Scholars Global Network (AASGON)
  • 14:00 - 14:20
Ethical and Purposeful Education as determining factor for Africa’s Sustainable Growth - the case of Ghana.
H.E. Madam Rita Tani Iddi
Ghana Deputy High Commissioner in London
  • 14:20 - 14:40
What can we learn from children? Interview with
Professor Dr. Ger Graus OBE
Global Director of Education Learning KidZania
  • 14:40 - 15:30
Affordable Learning Solutions
Dr. Gerry Hanley
Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Academic Technical Services, California State University
  • 15:30 - 16:00
Closing remarks Forum Moderator
David Lock
Education Director of Gulf Conferences
  • 16:00 - 16:10
<
Close of Conference
  • 16:10

Speakers

Learn from the leaders

The event will have an extraordinary line up of Saudi / Global policy makers, pioneers in education, and experts in all areas of Recruitments presenting and offering their expertise and insight.

HE Prof. Amr Ezzat Salama
Secretary General of the Association of Arab Universities
more
HE Dr.Khaled AbdelGhaffar
Minister of Education, Egypt
more
H.E. Madam Rita Tani Iddi
Deputy Ghana High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland
more
Mr. David Lock
Chair of Gulf Education Conferences
more
Professor. Michael Murphy
President of the European University Association.
more
Professor. Silas Lwakabamba
Regional Managing Director, Africa Hub, Coventry University Group. Rwanda’s former education minister
more
Professor Dr. Ger Graus OBE
Director at Hello Genius, USA, and an Adviser at Twin Science, Turkey; The Insights Family, UK; and Verofax, UAE
more
Prof. Graeme Atherton
Director of the Center of Inequality and Leveling Up (CELUP) at the University of West London
more
Prof. Lilac Alsafadi
President of Saudi Electronic University
more
Mr. Alex Beard
Teach for all
more
Dr. Anissa Moeini
Founder & CEO of Goldstar Education
more
Mr. Ashwin Fernandes
Regional Director ‐ Middle East, North Africa & South Asia - QS
more
Dr. David Pilsbury
Chief Development Officer at Oxford International Education Group
more
Dr. Reem Ahmed Al Buainain
Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Academic Affairs
more
Dr. Tom Fleming
Director of Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy (TFCC)
more
Professor. Mohamed Loutfi
President and Vice-Chancellor of the British University in Egypt
more
Professor. Dahlia Mahmoud
Associate Professor | Academic Consultant CCI
more
Mr. Salah Khalil
Founder and CEO Macat International Ltd and the founder of The Alexandria Trust
more
Mr. Kamran Robert Kardan
Founder and CEO of Knowledge E
more
Dr. Gerry Hanley
Executive Director of MERLOT
more
Daniel Bacelic
Head of ISVs, Public sector Amazon Web Services Europe Middle East and Africa
more
Mr. Nicholas Cuthbert
Director of Research & Insight
more
Professor. Anas Alsoud
Director of the global engagement center at Al-Ahliyya Amman University
more
Mr. Hanny Alshazly
Vice President, Middle East & Africa Ellucian
more
Ms. Svenia Busson
Global Learning Innovation explorer and First chair, European Edtech Alliance
more
Dr. Asmaa Al Fadala
Director of Research and Content Development at WISE
more
Dr. Narimane Hadj- Hamou
CEO of the Center of Learning Innovations and Customized Knowledge Solutions(CLICKS)
more
Prof. Wafi Haj Majid
Professor at the Global University of Beirut
more
Mr. Martin Creel
Executive Director, SVP, Global Academic Consulting at Discovery Education
more
Dr. Jameel Hassan
Acting Director: Quality and Standards Bahrain Polytechnic
more
Dr. Fernando Senior
Acting Director: Quality and Standards Bahrain Polytechnic
more
Mr. Hashem Taani
Director, Global Strategic Partnerships at Boclips
more
Mr. Abdul ‘Dewale Mohammed (ADM)
Executive President of the Africa Asia Scholars Global Network (AASGON)
more
Mr. James Gray
Founder and CEO of Kortext
more
Ms. Samantha Miles
Strategic Advisor Training & Consulting, Knowledge E
more
Dr. Ghassan Aouad
President, Applied Science University, bahrain
more
Dr. Ursula El Hage
Director of the Career and Placement Office, St joseph University of Beirut, Lebanon
more
Dr. Bibi M Alajni
Graduate Program Director Kuwait University, Kuwait
more
Dr Karim Seghir
Chancellor, Ajman University, UAE
more

Sponsorship Opportunities

Levels of participation

The Middle East Thought Leadership Forum is aiming to to discuss policies related to online education. The sponsors and speakers will outline their plans to make students benefit from online learning.

Please view the list below for all available opportunities.

  • Sponsor will have 30 minute session and 30 one-to-one PR scheduled meetings (exclusive)

Event Sponsors and Partners

Some of Our Previous Partners, Sponsors and Exhibitors

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Get In Touch

  • + 44 (0) 203 597 7034
  • info@gulfconferences.co.uk
  • https://gulfeducation.co.uk/
  • Location: Address 14 Alexandria Road , London W13 0NR UK

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