The visitors were greeted by officials from City, led by Vice-President for Enterprise, Engagement and Employability, Dr Sionade Robinson.
By Mr John Stevenson (Senior Communications Officer), Published (Updated )
A delegation from Egypt, led by His Excellency the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr Mohamed Ayman Ashour, visited City University of London, on invitation from Professor Abdulnaser Sayma, Head of the Department of Engineering in the School of Science and Technology (SST).
Assistant to the Minister for Internationalisation, Dr Mostafa Refaat, Egypt’s Cultural Attaché in London Dr Rasha Kamal and Expert in Transnational Education (TNE) advising the Ministry of Education, Dr Mahmoud Kohail, formed the Egyptian delegation.
The visitors were greeted by officials from City, led by Vice-President for Enterprise, Engagement and Employability, Dr Sionade Robinson, Executive Dean of the School of Science and Technology, Professor Rajkumar Roy, SST’s Associate Dean (Internationalisation), Dr Peter Popov, SST’s Associate Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Professor Sanowar Khan, Head of SST’s Department of Mathematics, Professor Mark Broom, and Professor Sayma.
Dr Robinson briefed the visitors on the new City Strategy and approach to internationalisation currently under development. Professor Roy welcomed the visit and expressed a desire to fully explore opportunities to benefit the School.
The visit focused on discussions of the new opportunity offered in Egypt for transnational education (TNE) and the ambition of the Egyptian government to make Egypt a hub for TNE in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with support from overseas universities.
The visitors were particularly interested in SST’s capacity to offer various forms of TNE in engineering, computer science and mathematics to higher education institutions in Egypt, both private or publicly funded. Dr Ashour, a lifelong academic, outlined the support the Government of Egypt is prepared to offer UK universities interested in engaging with Egypt. The current Programmes offered by SST were presented by Professor Sayma (engineering), Dr Popov (computer science) and Professor Broom (mathematics), respectively.
Professor Sayma took the visitors on a tour around the School’s engineering labs. Senior academics and Heads of Research Centres in SST greeted the delegation and provided a more detailed description of the facilities. His Excellency the Minister was very keen to find out details not only about the facilities but also about the research and knowledge transfer conducted by City staff.
The visit was a part of a two-day programme on transnational education in Egypt organised by the Cultural Centre of Egypt in London on the 1st and the 2nd of December with participation from the UK Government, the QA agency, the British Council, representatives of several UK universities who already have strong TNE partnerships with Universities in Egypt, and representatives from Egyptian Universities looking to establish links with UK Universities. All events in this Programme were attended by Professor Sayma and Dr Popov.