Najjar attends closing conference of project for female empowerment in academia

AMMAN — Culture Minister Haifa Al Najjar attended the closing conference of the project “Female Academic Role Model Empowerment, Equality and Sustainability at Universities in Mediterranean Region: Towards 2030 Agenda  —  FREE”, at Princess Sumaya University for Technology and Petra University.

The project has been receiving EU support since 2019, within the initiatives of the Erasmus projects, according to a PSUT statement.

The ceremony was attended by the Secretary-General of the Association of Arab Universities Amr Ezzat Salama.

The project involves strengthening the role of academic women in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, by seeking greater and more effective involvement of female academics in decision-making centres in higher education institutions, promoting gender equality policy, and preparing empowered female role models.

Najjar said that Jordan, which brings the Arab countries together with the European Union, “represents diversity, quality, pluralism, governance, and works with absolute integrity”. 

She stressed the importance of women’s status in Jordan, praising women academics as a role model for women.

PSUT President Mashhoor Al Refai, said that the university, under the directives of HRH Princess Sumaya, chair of its Board of Trustees, has determined to undertake the task of empowering women as a goal.

He said that the most prominent achievement of the project at PSUT was the establishment of the Centre for Sustainability and Equality, to be a source of ideas, initiatives and activities that can further empower women academics.

President of Petra University Marwan Muwalla said that the university has provided leadership opportunities for women academics, making them part of its decision-making bodies.

Rosa Martin Aranda vice chancellor of research and First Vice chancellor of National University of Distance Education-UNED in Spain, reviewed the details of the project, stating that more than 1,700 academics were trained in the first and second phases in the field of equality and sustainability in several universities in the Mediterranean region.