The Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), in cooperation with Palestinian Chamber of Commerce – Gaza Governorates- organized, on Wednesday, 3rd April 2013, a workshop that discussed ways of strengthening cooperation between universities and enterprises in Gaza Strip. The workshop was held in the Meeting Hall of the Academic Council in the administration building at IUG.
This workshop comes as part of a 3-year EU-funded (Tempus) project entitled “Strengthening Universities – Enterprise linkages in Palestine (STEP). IUG is one of the project consortiums which includes 4 other Palestinian universities, 3 European universities, Ministry of Higher Education, Nablus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Palestinian Chamber of Commerce – Gaza Governorates.
Dr. Kamalain Sha’ath, IUG president, welcomed the participants and emphasized IUG’s commitment to strengthen the linkages with local enterprises to better serve the local community development and build better future for the Palestinian people.
Dr. Nazmi Al-Masri, Assistant Vice president for External Relations, gave an overview of the Tempus project STEP and moderated an open discussion that covered assessing the effectiveness of the current cooperation between industry and universities, identifying the key difficulties facing such cooperation and giving practical recommendations to reinforce the linkages between universities and local enterprises.
Twelve representatives of major local enterprises in Gaza participated in the workshop; along with Prof. Mohammad Shabat-Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Abed Aschokry, Head of Industrial Engineering, Mr. Basel Qandeel, Nominee Network Liaison Officer for STEP.
The participants stressed the need to develop the current weak linkage between local universities and enterprises. They also discussed several practical suggestions related to reinforcing this linkage, including founding liaison offices to initiate coordinate and implement joint projects that contribute to the socio-economic development in Palestine.
