In the presence of President Prof. Zeidan Kafafi and the Dutch ambassador in Amman, Barbara Joziasse, the executive director of the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD), Farah Daghestani, sponsored the graduation ceremony of the first batch of students participating in Isma'ni "Listen to me" program. The program is implemented by the International Foundation for Research and Exchange in Jordan (IREX) in cooperation with the Faculty of Mass Media in the University and the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development. The program is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
Dagestani stressed the importance of educating youth on how to properly use their talents through providing them with specialized courses and workshops, like that of "Isma'ni".
Dr. Kafafi stated that Jordan has qualified human resources that lead to success, and that the graduation of this batch is a proof for the efficiency and excellence of YU students. He also spoke of the effective role of media in the present time, and how YU pays extra attention to it.
Bilal Al-Khasawneh, a member of the Advisory Committee of the program, said that the advisory and Guidance Committee have provided students with advice and counseling and encouraged them to produce programs in a way that serves the local community.
Vice president Prof. Anis Khassawneh inaugurated a workshop entitled "History and Architecture Diwan", organized by the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University, and the French Institute for the Near East in cooperation with the German University of Jordan, the Department of General Monuments, the French Embassy, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the British Research Institute and the German Protestant Institute of the Monuments of the Holy Land, in the presence of Vice president Prof. Fawwaz Al-Abed Al-Haq.
Dr. Khassawneh welcomed the participants in this interactive workshop, dedicated to presenting papers by graduate students to encourage them to do research. He also called other faculties of YU to follow the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology in this respect.
For his part, the Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Prof. Hani Al-Hayajneh said that the workshop aims at raising awareness about research in architecture and antiquities in Jordan, noting that this workshop is a platform for presenting the research of a group of distinguished graduate students, who they are proud of. The dean called on educational and research institutions to invest the creativity of their youth.
Dr. Suazik Bashtwal, from the French Institute for the Near East, said that the workshop is designed to promote research opportunities between the European and Jordanian universities in the field of antiquities and architecture in Jordan. She added that the workshop is a unique opportunity to share knowledge and experience, and an opportunity for the students to benefit from the participating educational and research institutions.
The workshop consisted of three sessions: the first was headed by Dr. Maher Tarboush, the second was headed by Dr. Abd Al-Rahim Ahmad and the third was headed by Dr. Ahmad Abu Dalo.
The opening session was attended by the Dean of Scientific Research and Graduate Studies, Dr. Qasim Hamouri, a number of faculty members, and students at the Faculty of Archeology.
The Vice President for Student Affairs and External Relations, Prof. Fawwaz Al-Abed Al-Haq sponsored the closing ceremony of the global competition "Hult Prize", the biggest student competition in the world for pioneering social entrepreneurs.
Abed Al-Haq praised the students for participating in extracurricular activities, international projects and prizes that aim at creating constructive ideas needed to solve the problems that societies face, pointing that YU has keen interest in supporting students’ creative ideas.
Dr. Abed Al-Haq referred to several success stories for people who, through strong will and good planning, have become independent and entrepreneurial personalities worldwide, and he encouraged students to be innovative to better serve their country, university and themselves.
For her part, the Dean of the Student affairs, Dr. Amal Nusir, pointed that YU students’ participation in Hult Prize is a source of pride. She added that this participation shows a good example of YU students’ capabilities to deal with challenging social problems, such as poverty and unemployment, and solving them.
The dean further stated that the Deanship of Student Affairs pay particular attention to extracurricular activities and various competitions, particularly the ones that aim at solving social problems. She added that such activities have positive impact on the students as they gain self-confidence to change for the better.
Mr. Ayman Arindi, the manager of the Hult Prize in Jordan expressed his thanks and appreciation to YU for encouraging their students to participate in the prize and for supporting their ideas to serve the community. Mr. Arindi also gave an introduction about the prize and the method of application for it.
At the end of the ceremony, the names of the teams, that won the best projects to solve the problem of unemployment, were announced. The team of Fares Al-Shamali, Malak Al-Shamali, Sahira Al-Omari, and Mohammed Al-Qazaqzeh came first place. The team of Leen Al-Zoubi, Mahmoud Salam, Suha Al-Tahat and Raghad Hawari came second, and the team of Ahmad Al-Smadi, Ahmed Balawneh, Mohammed Al-Zwairi came third. The three winning teams from YU will compete locally and then globally in the following stage of the prize to win $1 million.
The ceremony was attended by a number of university officials in addition to officials from the award program and a number of university students.
It is worth noting that Hult Prize is a partnership between Hult International Business School and the United Nations Foundation. The Prize is an annual, year-long competition that crowd-sources ideas from college students after challenging them to solve pressing social issues.
Student Sarah Ghraize from the Faculty of Pharmacy manages the prize at YU.
The president of YU, Prof. Zeidan Kafafi sponsored the opening ceremony of a series of academic seminars on asylum and forced migrations, entitled "Asylum and Forced Migrations: Academic Viewpoints ". The seminars were organized by the Refugees, Displaced persons and Forced Migration Studies Center at YU in cooperation with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF). 26 faculty members from different academic departments of YU participated in the seminars.
During the opening session, Dr. Kafafi pointed out that Jordan has received many human migrations throughout history. He added that human migrations started in the old ages, giving the example of the one that occurred 9000 years ago, when so many people migrated from the west bank of the River Jordan to the east bank due to climate change. The new comers had settled and built villages that are now more than 8000 years old. The president further expressed his happiness and pride of the number of participants, which shows their interest in such an important issue. At the end of his speech, Dr. Kafafi thanked Friedrich Nauman Foundation for their effective cooperation.
The Director of the Refugees, Displaced persons and Forced Migration Studies Center at YU, Dr. Ayat Nashwan, for her part, thanked the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom for providing fund for the seminars that deal with asylum issues from academic perspectives. Dr. Nashwan also referred to the different departments that participated in these seminars represented by the good number of scholars from the departments of Modern Languages, translation, Geography, Sociology, Economics and Administrative Sciences, Political Sciences and History.
The seminars included papers on risk readings, changes of identity, refugee women, sources of information among refugees in Jordan, education, immigration policies and the European position, the trauma of asylum in literature, the ideology of the Jordanian Islamic, national State and its impact on hosting Refugees, and International attitudes towards Refugees.
The opening session was attended by the project manager at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Constanze Sturm, vice presidents Prof. Anis Khassawneh and Prof. Fawwaz Al-Abed Al-Haq, deans, faculty members and a number of students.
At invitation of the Translation Department, Professor Myriam Salama-Carr, a professor of Translation Studies at the University of Manchester gave a lecture on "Languages and Conflict" at YU in the presence of Vice President Prof. Fawwaz Al-Abed Al-Haq.
At the beginning of the lecture, the head of the Translation Department, Dr. Mohammed Obeidat, welcomed Dr. Salama-Carr and asserted the keenness of the Department to educate their students on translation issues, which could enhance their academic performance.
During the lecture, Dr. Salama-Carr discussed how Translation Studies focuses on the role of language in conflict and war, and the importance of translation ethics, as well as the impact of the translator's ideology on translation.
Dr. Salama-Carr also pointed to the recent challenges that face translators in general, and interpreters as well as the researchers in the field of translation.
At the end of the lecture, Dr. Salama-Carr answered questions and queries from the audience.
On behalf of HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, President of the Royal Scientific Society, Prof. Zeidan Kafafi inaugurated Adumantu Journal III conference under the title "Water through the Ages in the Arab World in Light of Archaeological Discoveries" which was organized by AbdulRahman Al-Sudairy Cultural Center in Saudi Arabia. The conference took place in "Jordan Museum" on Oct. 10th and included the presentation of 34 papers.
During the opening ceremony, Kafafi delivered a speech and stated that the oldest human remains in our Arab world go back to more than a million years during which man left cultural and civilizational prints that emphasize the civilized dimension, and pointed out that the Arab world witnessed the beginning of writing and alphabets, the establishment of cities and states, trade, emergence of religions, and the appearance of apostles and prophets. Kafafi added that the conference deals with an important topic; the available water resources in the Arab world in light of archaeological discoveries and the most important world civilizations emerged on the banks of rivers such as the Mesopotamia, Nile, Sindh and King. He finally thanked the officials in AbdulRahman Al-Sudairy Cultural Center for choosing Jordan as the venue for this conference, as well as the scientists in and out of the Arab world.
The President of the Conference, Chairman of the editorial board of Adumantu Journal Dr. Khalil bin Ibrahim Al-Maaqil said that this conference aimed at highlighting the aquatic techniques used by humans throughout ages through archaeological research and identifying the environmental influences that contributed to affect the water resources through showing examples from archaeological sites, and providing an opportunity to meet with specialists in archaeological and environmental studies, and offering future research depictions. He focused on the universality of the conference since it holds scientists and experts in archaeological studies representing Arab and international universities and institutions in addition to experts from Jordanian and Saudi universities.
The Director of AbdulRahman Al-Sudairy Cultural Center, Hussein bin Ali Al-Khalifa, stated that this scientific forum is in line with the center's objectives, which call for supporting the scientific and cultural movement in addition to research and scientific studies.
The Vice President of YU for Student Affairs and External Communication, Prof. Fawwaz Al-Abed Al-Haq, met a delegation from the University of Manchester. The delegation included the Vice President of the University for International relations, Prof. Stephen Flint and the Coordinator of Research Strategies and International Cooperation at the University, Dr. Shaden Jaradat. Means and ways of enhancing cooperation were discussed between the two sides.
During the meeting, Al-Abed Al-Haq stressed the keenness of YU to enhance cooperation and communication with international universities. He also expressed YU’s willingness to send students to study in these universities to qualify them according to the latest academic methods, which reflects positively on their academic performance after rejoining YU. He also expressed the willingness of YU to enhance cooperation with the University of Manchester to conduct joint academic research, and staff and students exchange, and to receive students from Manchester to learn Arabic at the language center, in addition to the possibility of conducting joint international projects on issues of refugees and displaced persons.
For their part, Flint and Jaradat praised the outstanding academic reputation of YU, confirming the readiness of the University of Manchester to strengthen cooperation with YU through a memorandum of understanding, especially in the fields of scientific research and student exchange.
The President of YU Dr. Zeidan Kafafi discussed possible avenues of research cooperation between YU and Bard College, with the Vice President of Bard College, Dr. Rebecca Granato and the Dean of International Programs at the college Dr. Allen Hanil.
Dr. Kafafi stressed that YU welcomes all forms of scientific and research cooperation that improve educational and research processes at YU, pointing that the Refugees, Displaced Persons and Forced Migration Studies Center at YU has conducted many research projects that have had positive impact on refugees in Jordan in cooperation with various international organizations.
Dr. Kafafi further pointed to the possibility of collaborating with Bard College in a project for designing online courses and including them in the study plan to enable Jordanian students and refugees to join them.
Dr. Granato, for her part, expressed Bard College's endeavor to collaborate with YU in view of the distinguished reputation it enjoys at the international level. She pointed that the project they intend to launch with YU in 2019 includes designing a multidisciplinary online course that covers issues of human rights from historical and literary perspectives. Dr. Granato added that the course will include 10 students from YU, 20 refugees from Irbid City, and 15 students from Al-Quds Bard College in Palestine (AQB), and that professors from both AQB and YU will cooperate in teaching it. The program, as Dr. Granato stressed, is designed for the refugees and students to exchange ideas and to work together toward goals that concern them in the field of higher education.
The meeting was attended by Vice Presidents Prof. Anis Khassawneh, Prof. Ahmad Al-Ajlouni, and the director of the Department of International Relations and Projects, Dr. Mwaffaq Otoom.
The vice president of Yarmouk University for Student Affairs and External communication, Prof. Fawwaz Al-Abed Al-Haq, met a delegation from the University of Manchester which included the vice president of the University for International relations Prof. Stephen Flint and the Coordinator of Research strategies and international cooperation at the University Dr. Shaden Jaradat. Means and ways of enhancing cooperation were discussed between the two sides.
During the meeting, Al-Haq stressed the keenness of Yarmouk University to enhance cooperation and communication with international universities and to send students via scholarships to these universities to pursue their postgraduate studies to qualify them according to the latest scientific and teaching methods which reflects positively on their academic performance after rejoining Yarmouk University. He also expressed the willingness of the University to enhance cooperation with the British University of Manchester in conducting joint scientific research, staff and students exchange, and receiving students from Manchester to learn Arabic in the language center within the Arabic language program for Speakers of other languages, in addition to the possibility of conducting joint international projects in the issues of refugees and displaced persons.
In turn, Flint and Jaradat praised the outstanding scientific reputation of Yarmouk University and its level of development and modernization, confirming the readiness of the University of Manchester to strengthen cooperation with Yarmouk University through a memorandum of understanding, especially in the fields of scientific research and student exchange in various PhD programs.
The preparation of scientific competencies in various fields of knowledge, and the production of innovative scientific research aims to serve society by providing exemplary education in an intellectually stimulating university environment.