Birzeit University wins funding for two projects in 2021 NORHED higher education development program

Birzeit University has won funding for two research projects through the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development - NORHED II. The projects, to be implemented by the university’s Department of Nursing at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Professions and the Muwatin Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, were chosen from 199 proposals submitted for review by Norad, the agency overseeing the capacity-building program.

The first winning project, led by Dr. Sahar Hassan, an associate professor at the Department of Nursing, aims to integrate scientific research that explores women’s health in Palestine into master’s programs. The project will be conducted in partnership with the Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway, the University of Ghana, and the University of Dundee in Britain, as well as several local and international health and women’s rights organizations.

The research project, titled "Midwifery research and education development in Ghana and Palestine –NORAD" seeks to advance nursing, midwifery research and women’s health policy-making to provide sustainable health services for women. Researchers will focus on how midwives, doctors, nurses, nutritionists and pharmacists can make a difference in the well-being of girls and women by responding to and addressing gender-based violence and providing access to contraceptives and family planning methods, among other areas.

The second project, "Better Higher Education for Resilient Societies,"led by Dr. Mudar Kassis, an associate professor who teaches at the university’s Master’s Program in Democracy and Human Rights,  focuses on improving the quality of higher education by making it more inclusive. The six-year project will be implemented together with the University of Oslo in Norway, the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in Norway, the University of Los Andes in Colombia, the African School of Economics in Benin, and Makerere University in Uganda.

The team of researchers will engage with higher education teaching and learning by producing new pedagogies — such as a new course for Ph.D. that will be taught at Birzeit University — offering fellowships and encouraging student and staff mobility among partner universities.