Prof. Samir Najdi Vice President for Academic Affairs

LESSONS LEARNED FROM BENCHMARKING UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE IN MENA

AL QUDS OPEN UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE-PALESTINE

Al Quds Open University Experience

Institutional mission and context

Key Results

Response to the Results

Future Plans

Lessons Learned

Institutional mission and context •  The University’s Philosophy •  QOU Establishment & History •  Branches •  QOU Structure •  Faculties •  Staff •  Planning Stage •  Preparation of Curricula Stage •  Execution and Implementation Stage •  Blended Learning

The University’s Philosophy

Al-Quds Open University is the first among Palestinian and Arab universities to adopt the philosophy of Open Education and Open Learning, keeping abreast of technological and cognitive advances at the global level. 

QOU Establishment & History

1- Planning Stage 2- Preparation of Curricula Stage 3- Execution and implementation Stage

Branches

QOU Structure

Faculties There are five faculties at the university, all leading to the

B.A or B.Sc degree as follows:

  Faculty of Technology and Applied Sciences (3 Majors)   Faculty of Agriculture (2 Majors)   Faculty of Social and Family Development(2 Majors)   Faculty of Administrative and Economic Sciences (6 Majors)   Faculty of Education (7 Majors)

Staff   At the beginning of this academic year the university

staff reached a total of 1450. Administrative staff were 1039 and 411 fulltime Academic staff (221 PhD holders, and 190 holding Masters), in addition to approximately 1500 Part-timer Academic staff who are employed on semester bases.

Planning Stage 

The idea of the establishment of the University started in 1975 based on the needs of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. UNESCO conducted a feasibility study for the University project, in 1980, approved by UNESCO General Conference. The Palestinian National Council approved the plan in 1981, but, because of unfavorable circumstances, the execution of the project was delayed until 1985. 

 Preparation of Curricula Stage

During the period from 1985 to 1991, committees of specialists were preparing academic programs and specializations, study plans, and the production of educational materials such as textbooks and supportive educational media, mainly audio-visual aids. 

Execution and Implementation Stage

This stage started in 1991 with the headquarter in Jerusalem The first group of graduates was in 1997. The number of students reached 50,000 in 2005, and it is now around 67,000 students.

Blended Learning In addition to face to face meetings with students,

e-learning is used through virtual classes to enrich and understand concepts in more depth.

Higher levels of thinking, communication skills, polishing student’s characters are also tackled through problem solving and discussions in virtual classes and academic portal.

Key Results

QOU has decided to look positively at this experience, and to maximize its benefits from its participation in the UGSC workshops.

Results from : http://cmimarseille.org/highereducation/worldbankviz/

Results from the report

Report Findings: Screening Card and Self-Perception were

close in three dimensions out of five 1.  Management Orientation (3.78 : 4.0;

94.5%). 2.  Autonomy (4.12 : 5.0; 82.4%) 3.  Accountability (3.81 : 5.0; 76.2%). 4.  Mission (1.57 :5.0; 31.4%) 5.  Participation (1.28 :5.0; 25.6%) were

way off.

Response to the Results

Mission

Quality

Reporting

Mission: A revision is underway for the dimension of "context,

mission, objectives" with a view to make it more consistent with the philosophy and modern practices of the open education system. To do so, we are initiating a broaden dialogue with stakeholders involving students and academic and administrative staff regarding the introduction of innovative reform through the exchange of new ideas and share good practice. This is being accomplished through meetings and workshops, taking into consideration that this will improve Participation too

Quality: QOU has founded a special department of Quality

Assurance and Control since 8 years. This department has done a good job so far, but its tasks at the academic level have been quite complicated because this university depends on open education system and, therefore, has no partners in Palestine to compare with in building a sound academic benchmarks. Even the government quality agency has no experience to provide in this respect. Therefore, QOU is depending heavily on its staff and is seeking international help to quality criteria for its programs.

Reporting: Inadequate reporting practices have been observed in

many of the university departments and units. And therefore, available information about the performance of the departments and units left a lot to be desired. Action has been taken during last year to correct this situation by asking all concerned to submit detailed semiannual reports about their work sublimated in each case with analysis, comments, and recommendations. In this connection all staff have been encouraged to be frank, innovative, and transparent.

Future Plans

Self-Evaluation

Improving Information on

QOU (Visibility)

Strengthening Cooperation

based on partnership

Self-Evaluation We have realized that conducting self-

evaluation for the university performance is essential. Therefore, we have recently established a high council for that purpose, and it started preparing for a large evaluation process early in the academic year 2012\2013.

Improving Information on QOU (Visibility) QOU has a high degree of visibility in Palestine.

However, this does not mean that all relevant stakeholders in and outside Palestine know enough about QOU and the philosophy of Open Learning System it adopts. In many cases, there are misperceptions and mixing OLS with learning by correspondence which lead to misjudgments. It is therefore necessary to provide correct and clear information about QOU system of education.

Strengthening Cooperation based on partnership

QOU realizes the need for enhanced cooperation in a spirit of partnership and solidarity with similar international organizations aiming at mutual benefit in all levels and covering the full range of OLS.

Finding suitable partners requires getting in contact with advanced open universities to be able to relate to similar systems and compare data.

Lessons Learned

Awareness •  increased the awareness among the university

staff of the basic dimensions of sound governance

Strategic plan •  A wide participation •  Insuring that the specific objectives

Thank You