Under the auspices of Prof. Mahmoud El-Meteini, President of Ain Shams University and Prof. Abdel-Fattah Saoud, Vice President for Education and Students’ Affairs, opened the activities of National Digital Leadership Symposium for Egyptian Higher Education Institutions. This comes within the framework of the activities of the project "Empowering Egyptian Higher Education Institutions for Digital Teaching and Learning”, the first project of the International Instituteof Online Education Egypt Center (IIOE EGYPT National Center) of the International Center for Innovation in Higher Education under auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) and its headquarter at Ain Shams University and part of the visit of UNESCO-ICHEI delegation.

Representatives of partner Egyptian universities participated in the event namely, Sohag, Port Said, Tanta, Suiz, Zagazig,El Sadat, Arish, and New Mansoura, in addition to other participants through video conference.
The symposium aims to support digital transformation in the fields of teaching and learning in various higher education institutions in the Arab Republic of Egypt and to develop the efficiency of the senior management of these institutions.

Prof. Mahmoud El-Meteini, President of Ain Shams University, delivered the inaugural speech where he highlighted the importance of the center's role in partnership with Egyptian universities in supporting digital transformation in the field of education and learning in Egypt.
Prof. Li Ming, Director of UNESCO-ICHEI, expressed his appreciation for the efforts of the Egyptian National Center in achieving the goals of the center's projects and the importance of opening new horizons for cooperation with higher education institutions and Egyptian universities.

For his part, Professor Sherif Kishk, Assistant to the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research for digital transformation, stressed on the importance of developing training programs in the field of distance learning and the use of technology in teaching and learning.
 

Prof. Mona Abdel-Aal, Executive Director of the Education Strategy Administration,   Assistant Secretary-General of the International Institute of Online Education IIOE, and Director of the IIOE Egypt National Center, reviewed the role of the center, the steps and outputs of the project, and the objectives of the upcoming projects of the center. She praised the participation and interaction of the trainees of the partner universities .
International experts participated in the symposium, where Prof. Grace Oakly from the University of Western Australia presented an overview of the objectives and activities of the training program. Prof. Lim Cher Ping, international expert at the University of Hong Kong, presented the vision of UNESCO-ICHEI in the field of micro-credentials and how to use them to develop the skills of faculty members in the field of digital teaching and learning.

Prof. Lu Chun, Deputy Director of UNESCO-ICHEI, moderated a panel discussion, in which Prof. Mostafa Abdel-Khalek, President of Sohag University, Prof. Abdel Fattah Saoud, Vice President of Ain Shams University for Education and Students’ Affairs, Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Moawad, Dean of the Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering, New Mansoura University, talked about the needs of Egyptian universities in the field of digital transformation in teaching and learning, the challenges they face, and the importance of providing international training programs and certificates that qualify faculty members to keep pace with teaching and learning technology based on competencies.
At the conclusion of the event, Prof. Mona Abdel-Aal stated that the aim of establishing a dialogue between the leaders of Egyptian universities in this field is to participate in the formulation of a brief guide for strategies and policies for the digital transformation of teaching and learning in Egyptian higher education institutions.