IUG External Relations Hosts Dr. Nedal Jayousi, Director of National Erasmus+ Office in Palestine, in his third- day visit to IUG to conducted a monitoring session for Erasmus+ BERC project in the Meetings Hall at IUG Administration Building.
Interviewing Dr. Jayousi, he declared: " We don't actually have CBHE projects dealing with business in Erasmus+; BERC is the first of its kind".
Prof. Wael Daya, Director of BERC Project, exhibited the basic outcomes of the BERC project, saying that this project 1) has formed universities' research groups according to the international standards to tackle the societal challenges and develop innovative solutions for them. 2) Furthermore, the project equipped (5) research labs with software applications that are accessible for all researchers in partner universities with a view to reinforce the capacity of research unit's staff and MA and PhD students.
Not only that, 3) it promoted alignment and optimization of undergraduate and postgraduate programs with respect to the strategic research clusters, including expand research opportunities and resources that attract and support a robust number of postgraduate fellows.
4) In addition, throughout the project, participants accomplished the networking activities among the Business & Economic research centers of Palestinian Higher Institutions; therefore, establishing a research hub for the consortium.
Commenting on Prof. Daya speech, "This project opens the horizons for giving research center at Palestinian Universities the tools of research that is not existing," said Dr. Jayousi.
Experience of Partners
This project had been funded by Erasmus+ during the European Commission. It put the efforts of four Palestinian universities together: Islamic University of Gaza, Leader; and partners Al-Azhar University, UCAS, Al-Quds Open University and Birziet University. And from the Europe, University of Huddersfield, University of Almeria, Universita degli studi di LAquila and KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
From Al-Azhar University Prof. Nuha, depicted the impact of the project on Al-Azhar students and academics. She confirmed that there is a development in the courses of "research methodology" at both master and bachelor levels. At the project level, they created a website for BERC that included training and summer school material and had been dissimintaed to other local universities.
Prof. Nuha said that both IUG and AUG were working together to produce a sustainable local economic framework for Gaza in cooperation with Oxfam and Ma'aan Center.
From UCAS, Dr. Hatem Sultan shared his experience in developing labs and plans in participation with Islamic University. He said that, individually, he had got benefited mainly from the training, reckoning that it was the most important impact.
Institutionally, the collage has benefited from the equipment labs software plans and the research groups. Nationally, it opened a wide window for collaboration with private sectors such as the Palestine Bank.
Like other partner universities, Dr. Sultan Said that UCAS had also developed four courses and a well-equipped lab that is available for all researchers.
"All Partners were very satisfied with the project," stated Prof. Daya.
"We strongly encourage Business Departments at all Palestinian universities to apply in Erasmus+ Program".
Experience of Non Partners
Dr. Jayousi met with the non-partner universities and students who had been rained of opportunities under the BERC project.
Dr. Jayousi appraised the heavy attendance in their day off, saying, "We are here to monitor the indirect impact of BERC on individuals".
Azza Sahar, MA student at IUG, said that she is working on a number of IUG projects and she has been influenced by the BERC as it altered her mindset to dealing with data analysis and bases. The course of " research methodology" was utterly practical and " it aided me to be a research assistant on different online work platforms". During the project along, she had red more that (200) article resulted in (200) data analysis based on the knowledge given by the BERC.
Commenting on this, Prof. Hisham Madi, Vice-Dean of IUG External Relations, reported that all partner universities have participated in a base called "Data stream" which is a global data network that allows students to reach out to all international companies.
Ph.D. student Mohammed Al-Harazin from Al-Azhar University was able to publish a professional PhD thesis thanks to the "Research Methodology" Course. He is about to publish his research in scopus for the first time. In addition, he became a member of research groups that transfer experiences to students.
MA student at Al-Azhar University had been trained in the research unit. She delivered that: " It was a way to move me from the theoretical to application to work. I became a consultant with international institutions. I have become an executive manager for youth foundation".
One of the BERC Conference propagators added that he and his partners conducted A Quality Content Analysis for the scientific research courses in (7) Gazan universities. "We found many differences in the university way of teaching the course of "Research Methodology" in terms of the number of hours and the methodology. We delivered recommendations for improvements and this was the most out of BERC".
Dr. Jayousi concluded the session, declaring that: "The outcome is high as I can see. At the individual level, there have been developments in the capacities. At the national level, the universities became heavily involved of adding new tools to monitor the authenticity of projects".