Talal Abu-Ghazaleh College of Business Launched

AMMAN - Under the patronage of the Jordanian Prime Minister Dr. Marouf Al Bakhit, the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh College of Business (TAGCB), the first strategic partnership between the academic and the business world, launched on Monday in a special ceremony at the Amman Marriott Hotel.

Secretary General of the Arab League, Amro Mousa and the Palestinian Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology Sabri Saidam also attended the official ceremony in which establishing a new branch in Palestine was also announced.

TAGCB is considered the first strategic partnership between the academia and the business sector that has been materialized in the Arab region. The College is the brainchild of experts in both the private sector represented by TAGorg and the higher education field in the Federal Republic of Germany and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan represented by the German-Jordanian University (GJU).

Deputizing for the Jordanian Premier, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Dr. Khalid Touqan highly commended the establishment of such a College saying ?This partnership, today, comes first and foremost, to translate the vision of His Majesty King Abdullah II, with regard to modernizing the teaching and learning process, and providing quality education at the various levels and stages.?

?In fact, this collaboration between the business market and the university community is an important investment that would definitely lead to promoting a national culture of innovation,? the Minister pointed out.

The opening ceremony was attended by high ranking government officials, ambassadors, and representatives from Arab and foreign countries.

Klaus Burkhardt, Ambassador of the German Federal Republic to the Kingdom reiterated the significance of the partnership between the private and public sectors in the field of higher education.

?It is my firm conviction that by sponsoring the University, or by sponsoring individual students, companies will invest in the future of this country and also in the long-term of their own undertakings,? the Ambassador stressed.

?For the German government, the German-Jordanian University is one of the most important projects in the field of higher education worldwide. As the new German Foreign Minister (Steinmeier) confirmed during his visit to Jordan, we will continue to support this project,? Burkhardt added.

In 2005, the Jordanian Higher Education Council approved the partnership between the German-Jordanian University and Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization under the supervision and sponsorship of Dr. Touqan, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

The College will offer bachelors degrees in Financial Sciences, Management Sciences, Information Technology and Intellectual Property. The MBA in international accounting will be offered jointly with the Arab Society of Certified Accountants? professional qualification, the ACPA (Arab Certified Public Accountant, a program already validated by Cambridge International Examinations at the University of Cambridge).

The MA in Quality Management will link in to the Arab Knowledge Management Society?s professional program, the ACQM (Arab Certified Quality Manager), in addition to other specializations. Similarly the LLM in Intellectual Property and the MSc. in Conflict Management will be done jointly with the professional qualifications of the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP) known as ACIIP (Arab Certified Intellectual Property Practitioner) and the ACLM (Arab Certified Legal Mediator).  The MBA programs will be launched at the College starting in September 2006.

?The school has been established with generous support and funding of Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh to bridge the gap between the output of its educational, research and training programs, on the one hand, and the needs and demands of the industrial and private sector and the labor market, on the other,? said President of the German-Jordanian University Labib Khadra.

He noted that the University has established Talal Abu-Ghazaleh College of Business to join hands with the various national and international institution in Jordan, Germany and elsewhere, with a view to providing adequate training to the graduates in the business field and to helping them keep pace with advances, applications and methodologies worldwide.

Meanwhile, Abu-Ghazaleh highly commended efforts exerted by all the concerned parties to make the College a reality.

?What I believe is unique about this new College of Business is that it is true partnership between governments, academia and business where parties will be contributing to and sharing in every aspect of the school in terms of facilities, staff, courses, and students,? he addressed the participants at the opening ceremony.

He stated that this is not a Jordan business school, it is an Arab international business school based in Jordan which will provide business capacity building and continuous education at all levels.

?Our numbers in the first few years may be small but the quality will be high.  Quality is without doubt our first priority. Our students will have been exposed to the academic world and the business world, in both Jordan and Germany and will have faced three languages ? Arabic, German and English. They will be well equipped to enter the global market place,? Abu-Ghazaleh concluded.