Dr. Ahmed El-Kased, President of Menoufia University, signed a cooperation protocol between the university and the American organization “AMIDEAST” to establish a center to serve and support people with disabilities at the university as part of the third phase of the project to establish and develop centers for students with disabilities at Egyptian universities, in the presence of Dr. Ayman Ashour, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and university presidents.
The protocol was signed on behalf of “AMIDEAST” by Quincy Dermody, Director of the Public Universities Grants Program at “AMIDEAST”.
Dr. Ahmed El-Kased indicated that Menoufia University was selected among 7 public universities to establish these centers, namely the universities of Menoufia, Minya, Port Said, Matrouh, Benha, Aswan and Kafr El-Sheikh, which will be funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as the establishment of these centers is part of the Public Universities Grants Program of the American-Egyptian Higher Education Initiative to serve the academic, physical and societal needs of students with disabilities on campus and promote equality in access to higher education for people with disabilities within universities.
The university president added that establishing these centers is a good step to support people with disabilities in Egyptian universities, and comes as a great addition to these universities, and an important step towards integrating students with disabilities with their colleagues, praising the role of the Ministry of Higher Education in providing care and support to these students, which contributes to their integration and preparation to join the labor market, stressing the university's keenness to provide all means of support for students with disabilities at the university and to prepare an appropriate educational environment for them while providing appropriate tools and technologies that help them acquire knowledge and practice activities.
The envoy pointed out that the center will help raise awareness of the rights of people with disabilities, support the enrollment of these students in new fields of study, train professors on inclusive teaching methods, ensure the provision of appropriate facilities, develop a plan to modernize buildings to be suitable for all types of disabilities, and provide assistive technology to complete the education process in the best possible way
Noting that the center helps in creating databases to count the numbers of people with disabilities on campus with a classification of their type of disability; and develop unified systems, procedures and policies to ensure appropriate facilities for all students of different colleges within the university; And the establishment of a department to follow up on student complaints within the center, in addition to communicating and coordinating with other campus units.
Dr. Ahmed Saher, Director of the University's Center for the Service of Students with Disabilities, and Dr. Atiyat Muhammad, Deputy Director of the Center, participated in the Foundation's training camp with the aim of building a vision for center officials to create effective and sustainable services by understanding the challenges and barriers facing students with disabilities and developing a deeper understanding of the centers' work strategies in light of the results of the gap analysis study, the policies and procedures manual, and the project's axes and activities.
It is worth noting that AMIDEAST is a leading American non-profit organization specializing in international education, training and development in the Middle East and North Africa. AMIDEAST provides its services to about half a million people annually, and has been working continuously in Egypt for more than 60 years to expand the scope of educational opportunities.