His Excellency Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, stressed the importance of the Arab concerted efforts and endeavors of at all levels, to improve the quality and performance of higher education to be up to date with developments and challenges in education in Arab region, noting the importance of complementarity, comprehensiveness, consistency, and stressing the role of Cultural Attachés in completing Arab government’s efforts in supporting national sectors, with trained and qualified personnel to build the Arab knowledge economy, through each doing the role which it was created for.
This came after the election of Dr. Hamad Al Kaabi, cultural counselor of the Embassy in Jordan, Chairman of the Arab Cultural Attachés Council in Jordan, during the last Council’s last meeting held on Monday, June 2nd 2014. Dr. Mohammad Dhaim Al Dhafiri, Kuwaiti Cultural Attaché, was elected as Deputy for two years.
His Excellency added that he looked forward to the cooperation of Dr. Al Kaabi with his Arab counterparts to contribute to the qualitative development and improvement of higher education and scientific research and play a role commensurate with the challenges and expectations of the future phase, the roles which are expected of Emiratis in any position.
Al Kaabi said that the Council would work to achieve communication between the Arab Cultural Attachés in various areas, and develop it to the better and open future prospects to achieve the Council’s objectives and translate its ambitions into action.
The Council, which was founded in mid-2007 and held its first election, consists of all the Arab Cultural Attachés in embassies of Jordan, and works to strengthen Arab cultural relations through activities, meetings, seminars and various cultural programs, the Council also seeks to achieve its objectives of strengthening and consolidating the bonds of brotherly, cultural and scientific relations with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and to follow up on the implementation of cultural agreements and executive programs signed with the concerned authorities in the Kingdom, in addition to care and follow-up on students at Jordanian universities and to encourage them to participate in the university’s cultural, scientific, sports and social activities.
Brotherly relations between Jordan and the UAE has showed growth and prosperity since the beginnings, this relationship was and still is of interest to the leaderships of the two countries and those working in the cultural fields, and confirming this was the enrolment of the first Emirati students at the University of Jordan upon its opening in 1964 in the Faculty of Arts, and with beginnings of 1985 by opening the Cultural Attaché in Jordan the cultural relations between the two countries took another form by signing the first executive program of cultural and scientific cooperation between the two countries for the years (1986, 1987, 1988), where it stated that the spending in the area of student scholarships allocated for 40 seats in Jordanian universities for Emirati students to receive graduate degrees annually with (12) seats in the disciplines of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy, and the allocation of six seats for Jordanian students in Emirati universities annually.
