The University of Jordan (UJ), Professor Nathir Obeidat, partook in the second round of the National Economic Workshop, held at the Royal Hashemite Court under the theme: “Advancing into the Future: Unleashing Potential to Modernise the Economy”.
The Workshop seeks to evaluate the performance of the national economy, identify opportunities to develop economic sectors and enhance their competitiveness, and come up with a roadmap to enhance growth, create opportunities, and improve quality of life and services for Jordanians.
The workshop was launched on February 26th upon the directives of His Majesty King Abdullah II, and continued over five weeks.
The workshop brought together around 400 economists and experts, representing the private sector, industry and commerce chambers, the government, parliament, academia, public institutions, civil society, and the media.
The sectors covered in the workshop are: agriculture and food security, energy, water, mining, ICT, financial services and markets, healthcare, trade and e-commerce, manufacturing and industry, tourism, education and the labor market, transport and logistics, urban development and climate change, and creative industries.
Participants representing the education sector discussed a number of challenges facing higher education in Jordan, with a focus on job-based education, and offered many suggestions and solutions to obstacles facing higher education.
They also spoke before His Majesty of education as an enabler for all other sectors, as education offers other sectors the human resources needed to enhance the economy.
Commenting on his participation in workshop, Obeidat said universities have a great duty in matters of innovation, creativity and knowledge production through scientific research and the development of administrative, academic and technical plans strategies.
Obeidat added that, basically, universities ought to prepare students in two tracks; the first is academic and functional, and the second is social and behavioral, during which universities work to bring out the student into a knowledge-producing individual who is capable of facing life challenges and benefiting society with science, knowledge, and creativity.
He explained that one of the most important challenges facing higher education is financial support and funding, stressing that funding has a prominent role in creating a high-level educational environment and an infrastructure that serves students and faculty and achieves the goals of the educational process.
He also noted the existence of a large gap between academia, industries and employers, commenting that this problem is not limited to Jordan only, but rather a problem that most countries of the world know and live with.