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President Ben Ali's
Priorities
in the Higher Education Sector
Excerpts from President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's Program
EMPLOYMENT IS ALWAYS MY PRIORITY
* To open
up wider prospects for university graduates,
by including the culture of business enterprise within all the processes
of training of students, and allowing the latter to pursue their
academic careers by providing them with new optional modules.
We will also generalize the necessary mechanisms in all branches of
higher education, so that the student can change his course of study or
take a complementary training when needed.
GREATER
OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUCCESS FOR PUPILS AND STUDENTS
We are relying on
our students as the source of our national wealth and the pillar of the
country’s future. We have opened up for them the gates of knowledge and
improved their employability so that each secondary school graduate can
have access to the university.
Such is the choice we have made for the establishment of the knowledge
society. We want Tunisia to achieve further progress and prosperity. We
are seeking for our country the integration it deserves into the global
economy. We are determined to move ahead in materializing the principle
of life-long education.
We will work to protect the rights of researchers. In accordance with
our commitments, we will pursue the implementation of the program aimed
at establishing university poles. We will work to enhance the value and
the efficiency of the research, innovation and technology sector. We are
relying on the academic community, particularly teachers and researchers,
to actively contribute to achieving this quantum leap. We will step up
the State’s efforts in terms of creating new establishments, providing
them with proper equipment and ensuring an adequate ratio of teaching
staff-to-students . Our purpose is to achieve :
*
A university capable of admitting half of our
youth
that is more than half-a-million students aged between 19 and 24 in the
university by the year 2009.
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We will open up
prospects for students by offering
*
1,000 options for students in 2009
through the creation of new majors and areas of study that meet the
specialization needs and ensure harmonization with higher education in
the EU countries.
We will work to
reach, in 2009, the number of 50,000 students majoring in computer
science, communication and multimedia. We will also increase the number
of students in promising fields with a high potential of employability.
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We will also work to
* Enhance the
technological innovation potential of human resources
by increasing the percentage of engineering and sciences graduates,
between the ages of 20 and 30, from 5,9‰ currently to 11‰ in 2009.
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To consecrate the
principle of
*
Education for life, an opportunity for all.
The virtual university will, by the year 2009, transcend the
start-up phase to become an integrated system.
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We will work to
develop
*
A large scientific and technological
partnership with foreign countries
by doubling the number of joint degrees between our universities and
foreign universities by the end of 2009.
This, in addition to further developing partnership in research and
innovation with European laboratories, and enlarging scientific and
research agreements with the countries of North America and Asia.
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Will also be
established an
*
Intranet system for higher education by 2009
through the establishment of a modern national network for higher
education in accordance with the standards applicable in the second
generation of the Internet.
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We are endeavoring
to make sure
*
University life constitutes a stage during
which students of both genders are instilled with the sense of
citizenship.
Toward this end, we
will adopt a special plan to facilitate the mobility of students for
purposes of encounters, leisure and internal tourism, and to allow them
to visit our country’s historical and civilizational sites. We will
create incentives to stimulate cultural and associative life in our
higher education institutions.
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We will work to
improve healthcare offered to students, by establishing
*
A university medical center in each
university by 2009.
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RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
TO MEET THE COMING CHALLENGES
*
Enhance
the technological innovation potential of human resources,
by increasing the percentage of engineering and sciences graduates,
between the ages of 20 and 30, from 5‰ currently to 11‰ in 2009.
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