Following on the road to Damascus in the footsteps of St Paul and Professor Scott Bowman's 'epiphany trip' last year, two staff from the University continue to work closely with universities in Syria with which CQUniversity has established memoranda of understanding...

L-R are CQUniversity's Professor David Hamilton, President of YPU Dr Fayez Kiwan, CQUniversity's Dr Ali Abusalem and the Vice President of YPU Professor Fuad Shaban

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Professor David Hamilton and Dr Ali Abusalem

Professor Scott Bowman and team visited several universities in Syria last year with Dr Ali Abusalem to establish linkages and sign an agreement.

Professor David Hamilton and Dr Ali Abusalem followed through from this initiative by working at Yarmouk Private University (YPU) for three weeks in October, 2010, with additional visits to Damascus University and the nearby Arab International Private University.

The three weeks at YPU involved classroom teaching, presentations to student and staff groups and discussions with Deans and other senior university staff, in preparation for proposals for articulation of YPU and CQUniversity undergraduate courses and from YPU undergraduate courses to CQUniversity postgraduate courses.

Yarmouk Private University

As part of the marketing program, and at the invitation of the private universities, Ali and David are about to make a further visit to these universities this month (Feb) as well as to CQUniversity agents in Syria.

YPU is part of a move to establish a number of private universities in Syria in addition to the several well-established public universities located in major cities. YPU is in its second year of operation and running UG courses in Informatics and Communications Engineering, Business and Engineering.

YPU has an impressive modern campus located 40 minutes outside Damascus on the road to Jordan. It has just completed a newly constructed engineering wing as an addition to an already impressive spacious and airy set of buildings.Their Vice President, Professor Fuad Shaban, articulated the vision of the university, which includes a focus on quality and practical application. In many respects, including the newness of the campus and the early stages of its developments, the campus is reminiscent of the early stages of CQUniversity's metropolitan campuses, including that students are largely studying in a second language which for YPU students, is also English. It has, however, significant combined experience among its senior staff.

Staff at YPU include a mix of full-time and casual staff, with many on leave from, or currently also working at, public universities, mainly Damascus University.The staff are all very well qualified (most with overseas qualifications) and experienced.

Yarmouk Private University

Ali and David had the privilege of working with them in the classroom and sharing the student and teacher experience. Text books are in English and mostly American, including some CQUniversity are familiar with.  Students are also assessed in English.  Classroom teaching may be in English, Arabic or a mixture of the two, depending on the teacher.  This was fascinating in practice and we recognise that this multilingual approach parallels the experiences of many of CQUniversity international students in their home countries prior to coming to study with CQUniversity.  Ali and David shared their experiences and classroom teaching approaches in the classroom and this left a positive impression on students and staff alike, as evidenced by comments made afterwards.  Senior staff stated that they valued the contributions made by CQUniversity to their teaching and learning culture on their campus and they are keen to continue to strengthen the relationship between the two universities by encouraging students to articulate to CQUniversity courses, both undergraduate and postgraduate.  Staff and student exchange visits have also been discussed.

Ali and David will also revisit another Syrian private university, Arab International University, located not far along the road to Damascus as one of half a dozen substantial universities in the same general area.

Damascus University is the largest in Syria and has over 110,000 students.  Meetings were held with key staff on campus with the object of exploring the possibility of conducting a video-conference with key educators from each campus to discuss their research into improvement of teaching and learning and shared experiences in this area.  This is a complex exercise given staffing, technologies and approvals required from Damascus authorities.  Further progress with this project is planned for the February, 2011 visit.

Syrians place significant value on higher education and the government closely controls standards, including the requirements for academic qualifications for staff permitted to teach at university and a close control of the curriculum to ensure that it also meets high standards. As the ‘new kids on the block' the private universities come under especially close scrutiny. Private universities are attracting staff from public universities as they tend to provide higher salaries. This is apparently an emerging issue for the public universities.

Impressions from this trip are that YPU has been a sound choice as a Middle East co-operative partner, sharing many of the values of CQUniversity and heading down a similar track, albeit at an early stage of its development. For its part, YPU reflected great enthusiasm for the cooperative links. CQUniversity and YPU are well on track to establish a mutually beneficial long term relationship.

31 January, 2011.