Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Metini said that Ain Shams University insisted on organizing its ninth annual conference this year entitled “Fourth Generation Universities between Reality and Aspiration” in a year full of events and challenges in light of facing the Corona pandemic, this came during the opening session of the ninth scientific conference of the university, under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, in the presence of Prof. Dr. Ali Al-Moselhy, Minister of Supply and Internal Trade, Prof. Dr. Khaled Al-Anani, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Prof. Dr. Hesham Tawfik, Minister of Business Sector, Prof. Osama Heikal, Minister of State for Information, Honorable Imam Dr. Shawki Allam, Mufti of the Republic, Major General Doctor Bahaa El Din Zidan, Chairman of the Unified Procurement and Medical Supply Authority, Engineer Hani Dahi, Captain of Engineers and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nile Valley Contracting Company, Dr. Reda Hegazy, Deputy Minister of Education for Teachers Affairs. Dr. Salah Hashem, Advisor to the Ministry of Social Solidarity for Social Policies, Major General Alaa Mokhtar, Adviser to the Minister of Communications for Institutional Development, Prof. Muhammad al-Dawaini, Deputy of Al-Azhar, Prof. Muhammad Fikri Khader, Vice President of Al-Azhar University, Prof. Ishaq Ibrahim Ajban, deputy to Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark Episcopate, Prof. Ayman Abu Omar, Deputy Minister of Endowment, Prof. Dr. Hussein Essa, the former university president, Prof. Ahmed Zaki Badr, Minister of Local Development and Former President of the University, Prof. Mamdouh Al-Damati, former Minister of Tourism and Antiquities and Dean of the Faculty of Archeology, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim, former Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Prof. Abdel-Latif Al-Manawi, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Masry Al-Youm, Prof. Dr. Abdel-Fattah Saoud, Vice President for Education and Student Affairs, Prof. Dr. Hesham Temraz, Vice President for Community Service and Environmental Development, and a group of deans, faculty deputies and faculty members.

Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Metini added in his speech that the world's universities have gone through continuous development and innovation stages over the past years, and local, regional and international competition has become a reality in which we all live in a healthy climate that is in the interest of the main product of universities, which is the quality of the university’s graduate and his readiness for unprecedented labor market variables in the context of the industrial revolution. Fourth, an information revolution that does not allow an opportunity and leaves no place except for the distinguished, the brightest and the owners of innovations and future visions.

He added that from this standpoint, the university was keen to make this year's event more distinguished and more comprehensive, in close cooperation with all universities, educational and research bodies and centers in Egypt, the region and the world at large.

Pointing out that the university conference in its ninth edition includes sessions in various sectors of the university, there are 4 sessions in the basic sciences sector that discuss digital transformation, climate change, challenges of preserving the environment, food security, global biodiversity, the new in the vaccinations of Covid-19 and the use of nanotechnology in all disciplines.

The engineering and technology sciences sector also includes 4 sessions that discuss artificial intelligence and environmental systems, green universities and centers of excellence for energy and water.

As well as the medical sector, which discusses in 5 sessions the patterns of future health care, the future development of medical education, precision and personal (genetic) medicine in Africa, bullying and the health sector at Ain Shams University communicates with the community, in addition to a number of workshops. In addition to the human, social and educational sciences sector, where the fourth generation universities will discuss between opportunities and threats, scientific research in fourth generation universities, sustainable development and business administration.

He explained that this year the conference will host a number of distinguished guest speakers from the United States of America, Spain, Italy and South Africa, in addition to an important session for the international relations sector in which the university's activity reviews some of the successful partnerships that the university has undertaken with the presentation of awarding bodies for research projects with the participation of international students and faculty staff posted abroad.

He also referred to the university's role in stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship, as an innovation exhibition will be held on the sidelines of the conference under the supervision of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship with the participation of the Faculties of Pharmacy, Nursing, Science, Engineering, Computers and Information, Agriculture, Girls, Al-Alsun, Specific Education and Arts (media), as well as the presence of undergraduate students who submitted a simulation model to the World Health Organization (WHO) and a meeting with various universities to discuss how the university transformed into a fourth-generation university.

Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Metini is witnessing the development and restructuring work of Ain Shams University at the university and the main campus that is currently being developed to accommodate places for students to sit and increase the green space to become an outlet for everyone who works, studies and visits the university, and increases the number and organization of parking spaces, as well as the restoration work of the Saffron Palace that is taking place on Moving forward to return to its splendor and nobility, to remain a witness to important and defining historical events in the nation's history over the course of 120 years.

He also indicated the establishment of a number of new faculties (Archeology, Veterinary Medicine, which will start studies in September 2021, in addition to moving forward with the establishment of the Faculties of International Affairs and Media.

In the field of confronting and combating the Covid-19 epidemic, His Excellency explained that the university hospitals have played a pioneering role within the country's multiple efforts for diagnosis, treatment, follow-up and vaccination in the face of the epidemic, in addition to a large number of researches that have been published in this field.

On future projects, Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Metini pointed out that Ain Shams University is carrying out several expansions, as work is underway to establish an ambitious branch in Obour City on an area of ​​150 acres, which includes a large number of inter-programs amounting to (50 programs) in addition to an oasis of science and innovation on an area of ​​30 acres, which is the largest among Egyptian universities in order to cope with the requirements of the labor market, in addition to the Faculty of Medicine, Obour Branch, on an area of ​​15 acres.

The university is also preparing to establish a private university on an area of ​​40 acres in the Fifth Settlement area, and it is planned to include 7 colleges: Law, Archeology, Business, Applied Arts, International Affairs and Business, Media and Engineering.

Prof. Dr. Ayman Saleh, Vice President of the University and Vice President of the Conference, said that today's conference is evidence of the determination to move forward in the interest of the university, society and people - despite the circumstances of the Covid-19 virus pandemic and the keenness to take all precautionary measures - as the title of the conference for this year indicates the efforts being made. And the strategies that are planned with the aim of making Ain Shams University one of the fourth generation universities with all the meanings and trends of the world bearing the idea, with a positive and constructive immersion in the problems and conditions of Egyptian society, indulging the interested and loving and resolving them from their roots, and working to replace them with achievements that leap our society forward in Different walks of life.

Pointing out that Ain Shams University extends its hand east and west to partnerships with foreign universities, as the number of agreements reached 229 agreements in addition to 8 joint postgraduate programs, stressing that Ain Shams University opens its doors to scholars from all over the world, and the number of first-stage students has reached 6493 A student, and 2013 postgraduate students with a total of 8506 foreign students from 114 different nationalities, as the university seeks not only to educate them and engage them in research and innovation, but also to integrate them with their Egyptian colleagues in love and communication as the address of the university community.

This is in addition to Ain Shams University's endeavor to partner with all Egyptian and Arab universities, Egyptian research bodies, the Businessmen Association, ministries, media professionals, artists and all Egyptian society institutions, a full partnership with the aim of education, learning and exchange of experiences.

He stressed that the university is a house of expertise that allows its capabilities to everyone, as the university recently cooperated with the National Authority for Remote Sensing, the Egyptian Space Agency, many private universities, the Center for Research in Radical Medicine, and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Endowments.

Pointing out that our immersion in the needs of our nation is evident in comprehensive medical awareness convoys in the governorates of Assiut, Qena, and the New Valley, in addition to Halayeb, Shalateen and Asmarat, as well as training for final year students of the Halayeb and Shalateen Nursing Institute, and 7999 citizens have had illiteracy eradication during the last two months.