Administrative Exchanges Overview
The principal goal of the Brandeis/Al-Quds partnership’s Administrative Exchanges is to build Al-Quds University’s administrative capacity. Through a series of personnel exchanges between the two universities, Al-Quds administrators are studying Brandeis operations and developing strategies to strengthen Al-Quds systems and operations. These exchanges comprise three distinct project areas: Administration and Finance, Effective Teaching, and Communications. A fourth project area in Continuing Education began to take shape in 2008.
Each project has begun with a short-term visit by Brandeis personnel to Al-Quds to conduct in-depth assessments of Al-Quds systems and policies. These visits were followed by extended residencies by Al-Quds personnel at Brandeis, to allow them to observe Brandeis’ business processes and systems and, in some cases, enroll in specialized courses. These residencies enabled Al-Quds officials to create strategic institutional improvement plans that they will implement upon their return to Al-Quds.
For example, Imad Abu Kishek, vice president of Administrative and Financial Affairs at Al-Quds developed a strategic plan for Al-Quds operations. Rola Alafandi, director of Al-Quds public relations, developed a communications plan, and Al-Quds has begun a course of implementing new pedagogical trainings.
More recently, the administrative exchanges have shifted focus to issues of effective teaching through the exchange of faculty and administrators from both universities. Two workshops took place in 2007-2008, designed to look at issues of pedagogy, student assessment, and course design.
In addition to furthering the immediate goals of the partnership, Administrative Exchanges offer staff and faculty at Brandeis and Al-Quds the opportunity to establish and maintain long-lasting connections. We hope that such connections will generate future collaboration and projects and foster greater understanding between the campus communities and the universities’ wider communities.
