Joint Ventures

The fellowship program is funded by the Bank of Palestine and supervised by the Welfare Association. It aims to enhance the quality of higher education and teaching methods in Palestinian universities, through the academic, professional and technical training of university teachers at prestigious international institutions for periods ranging from two months to one academic year.

Birzeit University was the first university to sign a bilateral agreement with the Bank of Palestine, through which Professor Asem Khalil and Professor Mustafa Abdul Baqi from the Law Department earned grants in 2015. The following faculty earned grants in 2016.

‏Department
‏Name of Professor
Pharmacy
Lina Edwan
Geography
Marwan Ghanem
‏Electrical Engineering
‏Salam Malloul
‏Business Administration
‏Grace Khoury
‏Business Administration
‏Maysaa’ Burbar

Professors Asem Khalil from the Law Department and Abdul Rahim Al-Sheikh from the Philosophy and Cultural Studies Department were awarded Fulbright grants to study for one academic year in the U.S. in 2015/16 and were the only faculty at Palestinian universities to be awarded the Fulbright that year. 

Nine teaching assistants were nominated for grants to pursue their master’s degrees at British universities through Higher Education Scholarship Palestine (HESPAL), which annually offers 22 grants to academics at Palestinian universities. Mira Al-Far attained a grant to study for her master’s degree in marketing, and Sarah Khaseeb earned a grant to attain her master's degree in architecture in 2015/16.
 
Palestinian Telecommunication Group (PALTEL) Grants

Through the Paltel Group scholarship program, a number of faculty members are studying abroad. Over its history, this program has allowed 13 students to complete their doctoral studies overseas through grants totaling $500,000. In 2015/16, the program ended as PalTel chose not to renew the scholarship program.

As part of the RecoNow project activities (Knowledge of recognition procedures in ENPI South countries), a delegation from Birzeit University has jointly participated in a field trip alongside representatives of a number of Arab and European universities. The project aims to improve the quality and increase the mobility of students within Middle East and European higher education systems. The project addresses the problem of poor recognition of foreign qualifications in universities and the region, being one of the main challenges that hinder the movement of students between Arab and European universities and visa versa. Birzeit University has delegated for this effort director of the Registration and Admission office Khaled Turkhman, head of the External Academic Relations Office Dolly Kaibni Nammour, grades and documentation officer at the Registration Office Rima Batarseh, and Quality Assurance Unit official Nabil Dabdoub. The field trip included a five-day workshop at the University of Bordeaux in France that addressed the issue of students who study in European universities and the importance of their mobility, and the mechanism for recognizing their certificates, whether for business purposes in the students’ country of origin, or to pursue further graduate studies. The workshop also included briefings on the educational systems in France, Ireland, Italy and the differences among them, and touched on the Bologna Process, which aims to create a European higher education area, to facilitate students' transition between European countries and universities. Also, the workshop included an introductory lecture that addressed participating universities, their students and their administrative and academic systems, as well as their mechanisms for international recognition of diplomas and equivalence for further study. Moreover, the workshop included the European universities’ quality systems and mechanisms for the establishment of joint academic programs between these universities, aiming to develop the students' experience and promote cooperation between universities.

Vice President Henry Giacaman participated in the project’s committee meeting in Rome in December 10-12, 2014 and representatives of the project visited the university during the month of May 2015 and were briefed on the university’s achievements in this regard.

The Dunia Beam Project is one of the Erasmus Mundus projects funded by the European Union, in which Birzeit University participates along with a number of local, regional and European universities. Dunia Beam Project was launched in October 2012 and will end in 2016. 
The Dunia Beam project aims to contribute to strengthening cooperation between European Union and Middle Eastern institutions of higher education, specifically those in Jordan, Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian territory and Syria, by facilitating the mobility of students, researchers, and academic and administrative staff through a scholarship scheme, curricula development and the transfer of know-how in international mobility and the exchange of best practices.

The Hermes Project is one of the Erasmus Mundus projects funded by the European Union, in which Birzeit University participates along with a number of local, regional and European universities. The project began in 2013 and ends in 2017.
Hermes aims at developing training and scientific exchanges between Europe and Middle Eastern higher education institutions. 
In order to achieve its goals, Hermes is based on a partnership of 20 universities and on 180 mobility flows for a range of academic levels (undergraduate, master’s, doctorate, post doctorate) and for staff (academic and administrative). 

The AVEMPACE III is one of five student exchange projects that was implemented by Birzeit University in 2014-2016. Its partners are a number of Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian and European universities.
Through the project, Birzeit University was granted a dozen scholarships that cover the tuition fees of undergraduate, master's, doctoral and post-doctoral students. These scholarships are part of Erasmus Mundus - AVEMPACE III project, funded by the European Union.

University of Almeria in Spain is the general coordinator of the PHOENIX project funded by the European Erasmus Mundus program to support academic mobility. The project began in 2013 and ends in 2017. The grants it offers are available to all categories of doctoral, undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students and two sets of academic and administrative support staff from all Palestinian universities. A number of students and administrative and teaching staff have benefited from the opportunities available through the project.