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 4
th 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.
