HRH Crown Prince attends signing ceremony of a MoU and an agreement in London
On the sidelines of the World Islamic Economic Forum, held in the United Kingdom, His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, and The Right Honorable Baroness Warsi, Senior Minister of State at the Foreign and Common Wealth Office, attended the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Council of Higher Education and the British Accreditation Council.
From the Bahraini side the memorandum was signed by His Excellency Dr.Majid bin Ali Al-Noaimi, Minister of Education and Chairman of the Council of Higher Education, and from the UK Mr. Dominic Scott OBE, Deputy Chairman of the British Accreditation Council. The mMoU includes the implementation of the third phase of the cooperation agreement with the British Accreditation Council. The overall aim is to develop a mechanism for implementing the process of accreditation of higher education institutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Accreditation will then allow higher education institutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain to gain international recognition, as well as support in the fields of training and the transfer of expertise.
In addition to the use of experts involved in the implementation of accreditation standards in universities to gain international recognition, the agreement signed between the two sides included the first and second phases of the project which was the development of an academic accreditation framework in the Kingdom of Bahrain and to explore the views of all stakeholders involved in the higher education sector.
This development includes the study of laws, regulations and decisions issued on Higher Education to develop accreditation standards for the Kingdom of Bahrain, as well as the development of enhanced standards and licensing requirements for higher education institutions.In the presence of HRH Crown Prince, another agreement was signed between the Council of Higher Education and the Higher Education Academy in the United Kingdom, by HE Dr.Majid bin Ali Al-Noaimi, the Minister of Education, on behalf of the Bahraini side and Professor Stephanie Marshall, Chief Executive for the HEA on behalf of the British side.
The agreement aims to develop the teaching standards of faculty members of higher education institutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain through the development of standards to keep pace with new global developments in teaching, technology and learning methodologies. The aim of the work is to improve the outcomes of higher education students in line with the requirements of the labor market and for students to obtain employability and entrepreneurial skills. The agreement includes the implementation of a pilot project, with approximately 60 staff from institutions of higher education in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
On this occasion, His Excellency the Minister of Education and Chairman of the Council of Higher Education expressed sincere gratitude and appreciation on behalf of the council to HRH Crown Prince for attending the ceremony of signing the memorandum of understanding and agreement, which consolidates the efforts towards developing higher education and higher education institutions and confirms and confirms his keen interest to develop education and higher education in Bahrain and its continued role in the development of the Kingdom of Bahrain, in general, and its human capital and resources, in particular.
The Minister of Education added that the Council of Higher Education in Bahrain seeks to improve higher education whilst institutions need to meet international standards, noting that cooperation with the British Accreditation Council has so far had a significant result and contributed to enhancing students’ performance, improved the kingdom’s reputation internationally and to raised standards sought by the Kingdom of Bahrain. His Excellency emphasised that the adoption of international standards for academic accreditation, as well as standards of professionalism and teaching practices for faculty members was part of efforts to work with organisations with international experience to improve the quality of higher education in light of the support enjoyed by the Council from the wise leadership in Bahrain.
His Excellency the Minister of Education also explained that the implementation stage of the accreditation will start upon completion of the development of standards where the General Secretariat of the Council will start with a workshop for higher education institutions to introduce to them what the Council has adopted in this regard, adding that the workshop will be conducted by international experts.
The Council of higher Education confirmed the importance of academic accreditation which will be mandatory to all higher education institutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain.The Secretary-General of the Council of Higher Education Dr. Riyad Y. Hamza and the delegation accompanying HRH the Crown Prince attended the signing ceremony of both agreements.
