Saeb Khresat
President of Jordan University of Science and Technology
Education & Research / Jordan
“We’ve obtained 20 projects from EU funds”
Ranked as the top university for research impact (Scopus), Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) is also one of the fastest growing academic institutes. As of JUST President Prof. Saeb Khresat explains.
Can you give us some facts and figures that best define JUST today?
The number of enrolled students has started increasing, and now we have about 25,000 undergrads, 20% of which are from different nationalities representing 51 countries. JUST also has almost 2,500 grad students, 4,000 faculty members and operates two complexes: engineering and medical.
How does JUST collaborate with EU researchers?
We’ve obtained 20 projects from EU funds – amounting to €20 million – covering climate change, bioengineering and food security programs. For these projects, we partner with universities from France and 10 other EU nations.
What is JUST doing to reform research-based education?
We are implementing an engineering reform program, which includes sending students to workshops abroad where, for example, in China, they can get an industry internship. Likewise, with Germany we are planning to have a different program to send selected students to spend one full semester with the industry there and come back to finish their degree at JUST.
How does the private sector impact JUST’s research?
We partner with Orange, which provides training for our students, and Lafarge, which has provided funding for some for our faculty to research cement stability. We also have collaboration with large international Jordanian companies, such as Hikma Pharmaceuticals, which offers a course on how to ethically deal with pharmaceutical products.
How does JUST plan to stay relevant?
We have to think 20 years from now, which is why we are in the process of offering a program on data science. This is the future for all business, and we will start recruiting students in early September 2018.
Why is Jordan an apt research center?
Microsoft and Google operate in Jordan, which now has a vibrant ICT industry. Jordan is today very westernized and modern, and we have the telecom infrastructure that large international companies are looking for.
