Middle Eastern university leaders have said institutions in the region need to improve the commercialisation of their research if they are to be globally competitive. 

Speaking at the ����Vlog Arab Universities Summit, Ebrahim Al Hajri, president of Khalifa University of Science and Technology, warned that universities can no longer rely on “teaching and research only”, and said they need to expand their offerings to be able to better tackle societal problems.

Calling it a “defining moment” for the Middle East’s higher education sector, he said “academic excellence alone is no longer enough”.

“Societies today not only expect universities to generate knowledge, but to convert knowledge into solutions.”

����Vlog

Al Hajri explained that universities need to produce graduates that “can create jobs” opposed to “graduates that look for jobs”, saying there needs to be more emphasis on establishing a greater entrepreneurial mindset by patenting work created by universities and establishing spin off companies. That cannot happen, he said, “unless we move from teaching and research to innovation and commercialisation.”

Universities need to adapt quickly, or risk getting left behind, he told delegates in Amman.

����Vlog

“Within three to five years, things will be completely changed and transformed. Whether we like it or not, AI is going to be the new internet. Are we going to reshape our education? Are we going to reshape the future of our nations? Or are we going to continue what we’re doing?

“Our region has the talent. Our region has the ambition, and has the foundations, has the capabilities, and has the needs and challenges that can be converted into advantages, and to become not just a participant in the global knowledge economy, but also the authors of it.”

He called on university leaders in the region to forge better inter-collaboration to create an “innovation hub” in the Middle East.

“What we need to give our youth is skills and opportunities. Platforms where they can innovate and create their own companies. Let us work together across borders, disciplines and across sectors to build a shared regional innovation ecosystem… Let us lead, and create a knowledge economy of the Middle East and Arab region an innovation hub and a globally competitive region,” he said.

����Vlog

Speaking separately on future-ready universities, Ahmad Hamdan, vice president of academic affairs at Al-Ahliyyah Amman University, said that universities can no longer be “ivory towers that are detached from society”, and instead need to be “enabling anchors for society”.

“Community service needs to be one of the pillars in any strategic plan at a university. It needs to be thought about at the university level, faculty level, and programme level”.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com