TEMPUS CORINTHIAM

116Guide of Good Practices TEMPUS CORINTHIAMAs a Dean and an academic it was particularly interesting to discuss the relative meritsof academic structures and the perceptions held about both the North American andEuropean educational models. However it is also important to recognise particularlyin Palestine that there is increasing competition within the Arab world and that this tooimpacts on universities in Palestine and challenges their competitiveness, especiallygiven the opening of more than 30 branches of American universities in differentparts of the Arab world. This has encouraged many Arab speaking students to remainat home and attend international universities within their home country and thereforenot to venture to other countries for their education.It is however clear that the North American credit model and the pedagogic cultures ofinstruction are deeply rooted in the Palestinian universities and despite considerableinterest in the Bologna models and the concept of ECTS, the focus on learning outcomesand a student centred pedagogy, the often overwhelming political challenges,the border controls, Israeli occupation and encroachment all present such immediatepressures that it is difficult to contemplate such a conceptual transformation in thehigher education system, despite the imperative to do so. While the American modelfocuses primarily on the hours of instruction, it also has a tendency to produce modelsof instruction and to engender a passive rather than an active approach to learning andto focus students more on the acquisition of credits rather than on the educational process.It is clear that the imperative for the implementation of Bologna and particularlyfor the ECTS cannot be internationalisation but the pedagogic mobilisation of bothacademics and students.Culturally, when set alongside the continuous need for Palestine to seek internationalsupport and aid, many of our discussions focused upon the need to transform highereducation in particular in order to regenerate a culture of active learning and commitmentamong students and university staff that encouraged more collaborative, interdisciplinaryand innovative educational models. Bologna offers this potential, preciselybecause it focuses on the nature of the student effort and how this is apportioned inthe learning cycle and how this might better stimulate opportunities for internationaldialogue and engagement whether face-to-face or through other digital means. It ishowever vital that the processes of internationalisation that are quite new to manyuniversities in the Arab world in general, and Palestinian universities in particularcontinue and are developed through collaborative arrangements, active partnershipsand academic mobility for students and staff members at institutional levels.It is clear that the Palestinian universities are under significant financial constraintsand that the internal politics and policies of Palestine do not see higher education as acentral priority in the current climate and all universities are under pressure to delivermore ‘effective’ and more ‘useful’ and practical education, that is drawing a focus andresources away from research and scholarly activity. This places great strains on alluniversities to sustain internationalisation and to encourage mobility, and yet all colleaguesrecognise the imperative in so doing, such that they do not become isolated