Syrian Vice President Receives ARQAANE President and Delegates

Al-Attar and Abu-Ghazaleh Discuss Cooperation in Education

DAMASCUS --- January 30, 2009 --- Dr. Najah Al-Attar, Syrian vice president, met with Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, the Arab Quality Assurance and Accreditation Network (ARQAANE) president on January 29, 2009.

Both parties discussed means of cooperation between ARQAANE and the educational institutions in the country to upgrade the quality of education and guarantee its output as part of the educational development process Syria is conducting.

?We believe that education is the key for development and the base to achieve knowledge economy and better management in accordance with the international quality standards,? she said, adding that real procedures and steps have already been taken in this regard.

Moreover, Dr. Al-Attar highlighted the importance of the projects conducted by ARQAANE to realize quality assurance and accreditation in education and culture.

?ARQAANE?s conference is of a high importance since it introduces quality and accreditation concepts in education; thus, plans, programs and mechanism should be established to ensure that all these ideas are implemented on the ground,? she stated.

From his part, Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh briefed the Vice President on the activities run by the Network and its future plans in the field of quality and accreditation whether by granting quality assurance certificates or conducting training sessions to link education outputs with the economy.

During the meeting, he also pointed out that ARQAANE is planning to carry out various projects to achieve knowledge-based society and education accreditation in the Arab countries; in addition to transferring experiences to Arab universities with a lower cost.

Attending the meeting were President of the Office of High Education and Scientific Research Yasser Hourieh, the Syrian Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs HE Mr. Abdullah Dardari, President of Damascus University Dr. Wael Mualla and ARQAANE?s delegates.

The Arab Quality Assurance and Accreditation Network (ARQAANE) organized, under the patronage of HE Mr. Abdullah Dardari, the ?Excellence in Business Education? Conference January 28-29, 2009 at Rida Said Conference Hall, University of Damascus.


The Arab Quality Assurance and Accreditation Network (ARQAANE) is an international non-profit independent association established in Belgium in July 2007 with the fundamental objective of raising the quality of education in the Arab world.