Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University (USMBAU) in Fez joins the Union of Arab Universities

The general conference of the Union of Arab Universities accepts the membership of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, becoming thus the only dynamic Moroccan university in the activities of the union.

Prof. Dr. Ait El Mekki, USMBAU’s vice-president, who participated in the 44th session of the conference, said that the request for membership has been accepted unanimously by all members of the executive council of the union.

He stated, besides, to Maghreb Arab Press Agency that the council gave its preliminary approval regarding SMBAU’s proposition on holding the acts of the 45th session of the general conference of the Union in March, 2012.

Prof. Dr. Ait El Mekki pointed out that holding this event on the part of SMBAU, though its being engaged for the first time in the union, would be a good opportunity to activate the role of the Moroccan University and provide it with a greater impetus in its arab environment.

Within the same frame, the committees emanating from the conference issued a number of recommendations at the end of its meetings, in that, for instance, the finance committee recommended the approval of the report on (support fund for Palestinian universities), insisting on financial support for this fund, which is included in the budget of the union for 2011; about 15.000 dollars to promote scientific research determined by the board of trustees of the fund.

The committees recommended also dropping the membership of 18 universities because of non-payment of dues for more that 5 years, with an emphasis on restoring the membership of any of these universities if paying their dues during the current year.

As for the organizing and administrative committee, it discussed the report of the general secretariat of the union on (Arab Council for Training Students of Arab Universities), and it recommended stressing the fact that students should be in the last year and obtained the highest rates, and that scientific and training exchanges of students should include all universities in one country and not restrict them in certain universities, and develop programs and detailed training plans in advance to be sent to the receiving universities.

So far as the scientific and cultural committee, it recommended to work on activating (Journal of the Association of Arab Universities of Applied Sciences), which issued its 7th edition of Volume II in 2002 by means of moving its headquarters to another member of the union.

The committee suggested holding seminars on the role of the private sector in funding scientific research and legislative challenges in the field of family and cooperaion between the Union and Arab organizations, regional and international.

Participants in the conference elected on Wednesday president of Jordan Yarmouk University, Sultan Abou Ourabi, as a new secretary-general for the Union of Arab Universities to succeed Saleh Hachem from Egypt.

It is noteworthy that the Union of Arab Universities, which includes currently 213 Arab universities and educational institutions, is an organization with an independent legal status, founded by a decision of the council of the League of Arab States in its 42nd session held in Cairo in 1964, followed by establishing an interim sectretariat for the Union in 1965, which was transformed into permanent secretariat, the headquarters of which is in Oman.