Queen Rania of Jordan chairs Arab Open University board meeting

Her Majesty Queen Rania Of Jordan

As co-chair of the Arab Open University (AOU), Her Majesty Queen Rania on Wednesday chaired the 20th meeting of its board of trustees in Cairo.

During the meeting, which was also attended by HRH Prince Turki Bin Talal, head of the consultative committee for campus affairs at AOU, board members discussed the university’s academic achievements, according to a statement from the Queen’s office.

AOU Rector Moudi Al Humoud gave a presentation about the accomplishments of the university’s branches in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt.

Queen Rania praised the university and its staff for their achievements and stressed the need to build a database that focuses on evaluating the quality of learning as well as graduates’ skill levels.

Noting that such a database would also help promote the university, Her Majesty said it should also help to collect feedback from the private sector on the set of skills they need so that the curriculum can be adjusted accordingly.

Also during the meeting, the Queen told the board members about Edraak, a massive open online course (MOOC) platform launched by the Queen Rania Foundation (QRF) in partnership with edX, a nonprofit online learning initiative established by Harvard-MIT consortium.

Queen Rania encouraged collaboration between Edraak and AOU so the latter can gain access to courses delivered at top tier universities.

This platform will also broadcast the best Arab professors to the region, offering original Arabic courses developed by QRF to further enrich Arab education, the statement said.

Other board members, including AOU Executive Committee President Ali Fakhro, ministers from the Arab world, academics and AOU staff, presented the university’s periodic report and achievements at the academic, administrative and financial levels.

This year’s main achievements include the renewal of British accreditation for five years as of 2012, with the continuation of national accreditation for each branch by the ministries of education/higher education.

In addition, new bachelor’s programmes, including microfinance and learning difficulties, were introduced.

Board members also reviewed the university’s strategy and future plans, as well as its infrastructure and technical needs, and how it can improve its distance learning.

A total of 27,570 students were enrolled in all AOU branches in 2013, while the number of its graduates so far stands at around 20,000.