Insights for impact: Middle East - (on demand)
Published On: October 31, 2023
Join our webinar for a 60-minute summary of the changes, challenges and opportunities impacting the higher education landscape in Middle East. There will also be an opportunity for Q&A with our experts.
By attending, you’ll gain actionable insights to help you improve your institution’s global reputation, performance and internationalisation.
Our expert panel members will share insights on the following topics.
- Changes in the higher education environment – shifts in international student flows and how the Middle East higher education sector is set up to operate in an increasingly competitive international student recruitment environment.
- Exploring emerging trends – employability and sustainability and how institutions and the sector are responding.
- Shifts in student demands – the profile of students, prospective student decision-making and the role of rankings and third-party accreditations in influencing where students choose to study.
- How to increase global reputation – the role reputation plays in student decision-making and student recruitment, and how institutions perform compared to their peers.
- Partnership opportunities – where most research partnerships thrive, how Middle East’s institutions compare against peers on international research network strength and the link between research and reputation and student recruitment trends.
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Our Panel Member - Ashwin Fernandes |
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Dr Ashwin Fernandes is the Executive Director for Africa, Middle East, and South Asia at QS. He works closely with institutions across the regions to better understand the local context and to support the drive for excellence and capacity building. During his professional engagement, he has met with senior leaders from the region and is often invited to speak at several conferences and events on university rankings, ratings, education, higher education etc. He has been a panellist on various discussion forums and presented his recommendations on thought provoking topics related to higher education. Dr Fernandes championed the need for an independent rankings framework for the Arab Region and hence was instrumental in developing the QS Arab Region University Rankings in 2014/15. He also founded India’s first nationwide private sector evaluation framework called QS I-GAUGE. |
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Our Panel Member - Alex Berka |
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With over ten years of experience working in market research, Alex is the Insights Manager at QS and oversees the analysis and design of a range of research projects they conduct. Alex has previously been part of a number of market research agencies, working with a diverse range of clients across multiple sectors. Since joining QS in 2017, he has managed the International Student Survey - the world’s largest survey of pre-enrolled international students, and the Employers Survey - the world’s largest survey of graduate employers. Alex’s work on these surveys focuses on bringing the student and employer viewpoints to life, ensuring their voices are heard across the sector and highlighting how their expectations align (or do not align) with those of universities. He is well versed in drawing actionable insights from surveys and the findings of his analysis have been covered in a variety of industry publications, including PIE news and Study International, as well as wider news publications, including The Financial Times. |
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Our Panel Member - Habib Fardoun |
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Prof. Habib Fardoun holds a Ph.D. in Model-Based Approach for the Development of Quality Higher Educational Environments (2011) from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Prof. Fardoun brings extensive experience in implementing effective solutions to enhance universities' rankings, in the MENA region and Europe. He has diversified his work across several areas that are key factors to improving academic and research reputation. And advising on strategies to improve rankings, including enhancing research output, improving teaching quality, and optimizing internationalization efforts. Prof. Fardoun develop customized, short-term, and long-term, ranking improvement plans tailored to the specific needs and goals of each institution, providing ongoing support and guidance to help universities achieve their ranking targets towards excellence. |
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