Damascus, SANA- The national office for Erasmus Plus Syria in cooperation with Ministry of Higher Education launched the report “Top Hundred Syrian Researchers around the world 2015″ out of 1058 researchers worldwide representing Syrian educational and research institutions according to the world database SCOBES.
The report which is the first of its kind on the local and Arabic level is prepared by a voluntary national team made up of experts for the development of higher education.
In a speech during a seminar to launch the report, Minister of Higher Education Dr. Mohammad Amer al-Mardini stressed the importance of the report in putting indicators for classifying universities and teaching establishments in Syria in addition to working to support the Syrians researchers in various fields of science, noting that this is considered an important initiative that provides decision-makers in the higher education system with feedback and promotes competitiveness among researchers and graduate studies students.
Al-Mardini pointed out the continued cooperation between the Syrian universities and international universities during the crisis which enhances scientific publications and the level of research, adding that the Ministry has taken a number of decisions that helped the Syrians researchers in developing and supporting higher education and contributed to the classification of Syrian researchers according to international standards.
Al-Mardini also pointed out the importance of laying the foundations to encourage the Syrians researchers including master’s and doctoral students to publish in English, calling for establishing a committee for making recommendations of the seminar to the Higher Education Council to take appropriate decisions to increase and encourage scientific publishing.
In turn, Dr. Rami al-Ayoubi, Director of Syria National Erasmus + Office reviewed the most important activities carried out by the National Office in Syria and the task of the team of experts for the development and reform of the higher education in the framework of Erasmus Plus program from which five cooperation joint projects among the Syrian universities and the European higher education establishments emerged.
Al- Ayoubi pointed out the achievements made by a number of Syrian experts in the framework of the program in launching “Top 100 Syrian Researchers around the World” report, affirming the importance of the report to reach an annual assessment to the Syrian researchers globally and the need for supporting such projects to help decision- makers to take appropriate measures for developing scientific researches in Syria.
The team of experts for developing and reforming the higher education made presentations within Erasmos+ program.
For his part, Dr. Abdul Wahab Allaf research director of Atomic Energy Commission of Syria pointed out the importance of this report in classifying the Syrians researchers around the world, saying that the report included all Syrians researchers working in various scientific, research and educational centers in Syria according to four main axes in health, physics, life, social and humanitarian sciences.
In a relevant context Director-General of the Supreme Commission for Scientific Research Dr. Ghassan Assi pointed out the importance of the employment of scientific and research capacities in reconstruction and addressing the problems and challenges that emerged from the crisis and activating scientific research to be in line with the needs of Syria.
Erasmos Plus program aims at supporting activities of education, training, sports and youth from 2014 – 2020 among European institutions and other related institutions in the countries participating in the program and supporting the joint cooperation projects among universities and higher education institutions in Syria and Europe starting from 2015.
Qabas/ Manal