SDG 16.2.4
Participatory Bodies for Stakeholder Engagement
Signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the University and the Secretary-General of Shura Council the Shura Council
https://www.asu.edu.bh/latest-news-digest/
Signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the University and the Secretary-General of Shura Council the Shura Council, represented by Councilor Osama Ahmed Al Asfour, the Secretary-General of Shura Council, and Applied Science University, represented by Prof Ghassan Fouad Aouad, President of the University, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on December 29th, 2020. The MOU aims to organise and hold training programmes and workshops for employees of the Secretary-General of Shura Council, along with providing Advisory Engagements and achieving mutual scientific collaboration and knowledge between the two parties. The signing was attended by Dr Mohammad Youssif Ahmed, Vice President of Administration, Finance and Community Engagement, Mrs Ruqayya Mohsen, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Mr Abdullah Al Khaja, Director of Administrative and Financial Affairs, and Dr Mohammad Al Hammami, Office Manager of Community Engagement.
ASU Signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the At’aa Individual Social Responsibility Society
https://www.asu.edu.bh/latest-news-digest/
Applied Science University signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the At’aa Individual Social Responsibility Society on 17th March, 2022. The University’s signing of the Memorandum of Understanding comes to achieve its strategic goals, including community partnership and Engagement. ASU was represented by Professor Ghassan Aouad, President of the University, and At’aa Individual Social Responsibility Society was represented by Dr Hala Jamal, President of At’aa Individual Social Responsibility Society. The ceremony was held in Abdullah Nass hall with the attendance of Senior Management of both sides.
Memorandum of Understanding between Applied Science University and Bahrain Institute for Political Development
https://www.asu.edu.bh/latest-news-digest/
On Tuesday, June 16, 2020, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Applied Science University and Bahrain Institute for Political Development
Based on their respective mandates, the University of Applied Sciences and the Bahrain Institute for Political Development aim to maximize the benefits of mutual cooperation, particularly in the areas of training, capacity development, and skills enhancement. They seek to achieve their goals and support the principle of knowledge exchange among national government institutions, including the private sector.
Memorandum of Understanding Between the University and the Council of Representatives
https://www.alayam.com/alayam/events/743370/News.html
On the 23rd July 2018, the university signed an MOU with the Council of Representatives, Prof. Ghassan Aouad, President of the University, emphasized the university’s commitment to collaborating with national institutions and local community organizations to benefit Bahraini society and contribute to supporting the country’s development under wise leadership.
The university’s president explained, during the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the university and the Council of Representatives, that the university, based on its approach, principles, and goals towards enhancing and developing its role in serving the Bahraini society, supporting governmental and private institutions in scientific and educational fields, was keen on signing the memorandum of understanding with the council. This includes providing academic and research expertise, conducting training and educational courses for its members, and utilizing the knowledge resources available at the Council of Representatives, in addition to enhancing legal, social, political, and economic research and studies conducted by the General Secretariat employees of the Council of Representatives, as well as specialized scientific courses and workshops.
The university’s president commended the role of the Council of Representatives and its contribution to enriching the knowledge of the university’s students, noting that the university’s services are based on the principle of maximizing community partnership. This is achieved by providing distinguished work that contributes to creating added value for the Bahraini society. He also highlighted that this memorandum aims to establish a practical framework for cooperation between the two parties, benefiting the university’s students by helping them gain a deeper understanding of the functioning of the Council of Representatives, attending parliamentary sessions, and participating in the training courses offered by the parliamentary training center. This is particularly relevant as the university offers undergraduate programs in law and political science, which will assist students in entering the job market.
The main body of the university has an area where there are representatives from other sectors, specifically local residents, the local government, the local private sector and representatives of local civil society. Below are the representatives of each sector at ASU:
Local Government:
Representative of the local government in Bahrain to participate in the different university councils that are held annually.
Private Sector:
9T9 has a representative in ASU for the different participation in meetings and university councils. This relationship allowed ASU to sign an agreement with 9T9 for training university graduates
Local Residents in Bahrain:
Representative of the local community in Bahrain to participate in the different activities of the university council.
Local civil society
Representative of local civil society in ASU. Bahrain Women Society and ASU have worked for a few years signing a collaboration agreement and several activities have been carried out throughout the year.
ASU Community Engagement Policy
The Community Engagement policy at ASU highlights the importance of inculcating an attitude and culture of service amongst its students and employees. As an organization that fosters learning and teaching the possibilities of the University contribution to its society are boundless. The University believes that it is fulfilling an important role in the community by producing future leaders and entrepreneurs. The University is also instilling a sense of community service and social responsibility not only amongst its students but also its staff and faculty. In doing so it believes that its efforts will not only help the University get recognized in the community as a positive contributor but also help the nation and region gain academic superiority [1].
Purpose
The purpose of the Community Engagement Policy is to [1]:
- Define the University belief about community service [1].
- Specify the objectives of the CE Office [1].
- Outline the scope and nature activities to be undertaken by the CE Office [1].
The University intends to hep and assist the nation through [1]:
- Providing Innovation through research [1].
- Developing talent; Making the labour force more competitive through word class quality education [1].
- Bringing new technology and knowledge through collaboration with international academia [1].
- Creating tolerance for differences in opinion [1].
- Encouraging free and open flow ideas [1].
- Developing programs capable of creating community partnership [1].
- Garnering financial resources to sustain community engagement programs [1].
Figure 3. Community Engagement Policy at ASU, taken from [1].
The Department Governance at ASU
The governance at ASU aim is to achieve effective monitoring of the administrative units of the university with the purpose that all the organisms in the University function properly under the policies established by ASU and the laws of Bahrain and ensures that departments apply the rules to achieve a stable work and thus high performance. Includes not only issues of ownership and control over the University but the detailed structure, roles and responsibilities, and mechanisms of accountability governing all that is done within the realm of legitimate university activity. This includes amongst other things the vertical structure that defines the main roles (organizational structure) which houses the necessary capabilities to fulfil ASU’s strategic objectives (effectiveness), and the horizontal organization that materializes the lateral capacities of the University and wherein actual University business is processed. Board of Trustees (BoT), University Council, and University Management Committee are one of the main entities in ASU governance structure (headed by the BoT) [2].
Figure 1.The Department Governance at ASU, taken from [2]
Finally, ASU’s Governance & Strategic Planning Unit has responsibility to collaborate with the various units and departments of the University to make sure that the Strategic Plan is being clearly communicated and fully understood by our stakeholders and that our staff are sufficiently equipped to implement it successfully. After the University first devised its Strategic Plan in 2015, we immediately began work on implementation and major progress has been made by the date of the mid-stage review in 2017 [3].
During this period, the many significant milestones achieved include:
- Full confidence from Bahrain’s Education & Training Quality Authority (BQA) for additional programmes, bringing the total number of programmes with Full Confidence to nine (three more to be reviewed in 2018) [3].
- Collaboration agreement with the Higher Education Academy (UK) for pedagogic development of our faculty where 50% of our academic staff are now HEA Fellows or Senior Fellows or in the process of achieving this qualification [3].
- International partnership agreements with two leading British universities, London South Bank University and Cardiff Metropolitan University are in place. Four programmes are now in operation and recruited their first students in September2017 [3].
- Institutional Listing for the University on Bahrain’s National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Register by the Education & Training Quality Authority (BQA) [3].
- Successful application for HEC Institutional Accreditation and a significant progress has also been made on preparations for the Accreditation Panel Visit [3].
- Niche research areas identified for collaborative research activities within the University and an increase of almost 70% in the number of research publications (42 in 2014/15 and 71 in 2016/17) [3].
- International Conference on Sustainable Futures (ICSF 2017), an international research conference organized and held in November 2017 in collaboration with London South Bank University, with participants from over 20 countries [3].
- Our robust Quality Management System (QMS) set in place, together with starting the process of achieving ISO 9001:2015 certification [3].
- Strengthened links with the business community via formal agreements with employers and organizations (including Flat 6 Labs, SMEs Bahrain, Bahrain Businesswomen’s Society, Royal Charity Organization, etc.) [3].
- An increased number of entrepreneurship courses and activities to enable students to prepare better for their future careers an enhanced Programme of community engagement activities [3].
- Additional student clubs establish in collaboration with the Students’ Council to enrich students’ university experience [3].
- An all-staff meeting will be called soon to present our updated strategic plan. In addition, sessions will be held with our students and external stakeholders in order to keep them up-to-date [3].
In line with the Higher Education Council strategy which fosters the establishment of business centers within the universities across Bahrain, the University launched a Business Incubation Center that combines both innovation and entrepreneurship from all its academic programmes. This comes with the aim to generate all opportunities that enhance the students’ entrepreneurship concept to make them job-makers rather than job seekers. The Center is a strategic mechanism to enhance the students’ entrepreneurial skills that creates new ventures and partnerships opportunities.
In addition to the above, the university has a community engaging office that aims to invest the university’s scientific, material and human resources capabilities to serve the Bahraini society and look into its political, economic, social and strategic issues, so as to achieve the objectives of the total development and assistance in finding scientific solutions to the problems faced in all areas. The office also contributes to the training of human resources for employees in public and private sectors, civil society institutions and the staff at the university to develop and sharpen their skills and knowledge and to ensure a high level of performance. See more information about of Community-Engagement-Policy.
ASU recognizes the importance of supporting entrepreneurship that will broaden the educational horizon and the knowledge that influences productivity through entrepreneurship which contributes in supporting the economy of Kingdom of Bahrain. The University is keen to provide students with necessary entrepreneurship skills in order to develop their capabilities through various corporate agreements with establishments that support such innovations and entrepreneurship.
Therefore, the University launched a Business Incubation Center [4] that combines both innovation and entrepreneurship from all its academic programmes. This comes with the aim to generate all opportunities that enhance the students’ entrepreneurship concept to make them job-makers rather than job seekers. The Center is a strategic mechanism to enhance the students’ entrepreneurial skills that creates new ventures and partnerships opportunities.
Figure 2. Business Incubation Center , taken from [4]
The incubation center at the university represent a workroom that prepares youth who has the motive to experience real entrepreneurship feeling especially in their early stages. The centre services are totally free of charge. In addition, INJAZ Bahrain’s Company of the Year 2017/18 was won by a team of ASU students for their application AI Fazaa, which links users to car, maintenance providers. Chaired by HH Shaikha, Hessa bint Khalifa AI Khalifa, INJAZ Bahrain is, part of Junior Achievement Worldwide and aims to, empower young people to own their economic, success and prepare for todals business, challenges. Under INJAZ programmes, volunteer instructors work with groups of students to link class theory with practice and turn ideas into real-life businesses.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship center
Innovation and Entrepreneurship center at Applied Science University is the result of the important role that the university plays in spreading science and knowledge. The center aims at transforming entrepreneurial and innovative ideas into real physical projects that can enhance the national economy and help building sustainable development. The center has been established to contribute to the creation of remarkable success stories and to support youth’s creative idea.
The Center Objectives are:
- Creating and spreading entrepreneurial culture and increase the awareness of self-employment concept among the university’s students in all faculties.
- Assisting students with entrepreneurial ideas in shaping their ideas in order to be presented in an organized and comprehensive way.
- Protecting the students’ entrepreneurial ideas by educating them about trademarks, copyrights and patents laws.
- Preparing students with entrepreneurial ideas for the different managerial tasks needed to successfully manage and promote their businesses.
- Providing the necessary infrastructure needed to start entrepreneurial businesses.
- Assisting in providing the initial funds needed to launch the entrepreneurial businesses.
- Assisting in providing the necessary funds needed to expand entrepreneurial businesses through connection with interested investors.
- Following up entrepreneurial businesses after leaving the incubator and provide necessary advices and recommendations to secure its success.
Membership Main Requirements:
The student has to be registered at the university and attending his classes at the time of applying or graduated from the university within the past five years. Entrepreneurial Ideas should be innovative and new.
Figure 4. Membership Main Requirements, taken from [4]