The RAQMYAT project, focused on strengthening the digital capacities of Tunisian doctoral schools in the humanities and social sciences (HSS), marked an important milestone with two major events organized from 25 to 27 June 2024 in Gammarth.
The two events, the 2nd Training course for trainers and the Workshop on digital strategies, were attended by more than 70 research professors, assistant professors, directors of doctoral schools, institutional managers and academic staff in HSS from the 7 Tunisian partner universities: the University of La Manouba, the University of Tunis, the University of Tunis El Manar, the Virtual University of Tunis, the University of Sousse, the University of Sfax and the University of Kairouan.
They were organized by UNIMED – the project leader – in cooperation with the University of Tunis El Manar, which hosted the events, and with the scientific support of the University of La Manouba, the project’s scientific coordinator.
Keywords: training and strategy
An official ceremony, held on the morning of 25 June, opened the two events, with the participation of the Vice-President of the University of La Manouba, Prof. Ameur Cherif, the Vice-President of the University of Tunis El Manar, Prof. Fadila Darragi, the Director of the Directorate of Doctoral Schools at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Tunisia, Arbia Ben Othman, Coordinator of the Erasmus plus Tunisia National Office, Nesrine Bakhlouti and Prof. Hmaid Ben Aziza, Secretary General of UNIMED and former President of the University of Tunis.
Prof. Sihem Najar, from the University of La Manouba and scientific coordinator of the RAQMYAT project, presented and moderated the two events, emphasizing the importance of the 2nd training course aimed at training a core of teachers and adjunct professors able to work in the digital humanities, as well as the workshop for the teams from the seven Tunisian universities responsible for drafting the digital strategy for doctoral training in the humanities and social sciences, one of the project’s main objectives.
Finally, Silvia Marchionne, UNIMED’s international project manager and project coordinator, gave a brief presentation of the project, highlighting the activities carried out and the next steps.
2nd train-the-trainers
The objective of this 2nd train-the-trainers course – which followed on from the 1st training course held in Sfax from 24 to 26 April – was to provide teachers with the necessary skills to use digital resources and teaching tools in the context of doctoral training, as well as to improve their skills in digital pedagogy in engineering.
The aim was also to improve their ability to support doctoral students in the development of their career plans. The experts and trainers for this course were Prof. Olfa Mourali (University of Tunis El Manar), Prof. Chiraz Chilani (Virtual University of Tunis), Prof. Adel Karaa and Prof. Hechmi Najjar (University of Tunis), Prof. Sana Tebessi and Prof. Kaouther Azouz (University of La Manouba).
Workshop on digital strategies
The objective of this workshop was to support Tunisian universities in the drafting of their digital strategies for doctoral training. The work over the three days was coordinated by the University of La Manouba team in charge of WP2 dedicated to the development of digital strategies for Tunisian universities, mainly with the support and facilitation of Prof. Rym Bouderbala, from UMA, who guided the Tunisian teams in thinking about the drafting of strategies.
The workshop also involved Tunisian experts on digitization and university strategic planning from the Institut de la Formation à Distance de la Francophonie (IFIC-AUF), especially Ezzedine Zagrouba, Olfa Mourali and Mohamed Arbi Ben Younes. The experts clarified the terminology used in strategic planning and presented the main guidelines of the strategy and the main methods used. This was followed by the presentation of the results of quantitative and qualitative surveys conducted by the seven Tunisian universities that are partners in RAQMYAT and an in-depth discussion on strategic priorities, areas of interest and areas of intervention.
In addition, the experiences of European partners, in particular the University of Vienna and the University of Granada, were shared to enrich the proposals made and draw inspiration from their experience. These three days of workshops were very useful to support the teams responsible for developing digital strategies for doctoral training.
Closing Ceremony
On the afternoon of 27 June, a press conference concluded the proceedings. The Presidents of the University of La Manouba and the University of Tunis El Manar, Prof. Jouhaina Gherib and Prof. Moez Chafra, respectively, and the Secretary General of UNIMED, Prof. Hmaid Ben Aziza, concluded the three days by emphasizing the need to continue the cooperation between Tunisian and European universities.
