By Hagar Tameem
Dean of the College of Al-Alsun, Ain Shams University, Salwa Othman, said her collegeworks to keep pace with the national development strategy,Egypt Vision 2030.
The college, she said, works to link the educational process in it with innovation.
“Our college is part of the Innovation Hub programme which was launched by Ain Shams University,” Othman told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview.
She noted that the College of Al-Alsunmakes efforts to connect scientific research and innovative ideas with industry, the economy and entrepreneurship.
She added that the collegecontains 15 language departments where study is divided into the semester system and the new regulation for the credit hour system.
Othman revealed that her college is in the process of establishing a new department for the Portuguese language in co-operation with the Kamish Institute and the University of Porto.
“Students joining the new department this academic year will graduate after four years,” Othman said.
She added that her faculty’s administration would select three teaching assistants from the first class of the department after graduation in line with the new department’s five-year plan for teaching assistants.
The College of Al-Alsunhas enlisted help from native Portuguese professors to teach at the new department, in cooperation with the Brazilian Embassy in Cairo.
Othman said Kamish Institute also provided students with scholarships.
Apart from its 15 departments, which teach a wide range of foreign languages, including French, German, Spanishand Korean, the College of Al-Alsun also contains sections for teaching Afrikaans and active Swahili.
Othman noted that her faculty has introduced new programmes in line with the needs of the labour market since 2013.
Among many others, she said, these programmes include the French language programme for writing and interpretation, and the English language programme for writing and interpretation.
The collegehas also introduced Chinese, Spanish and Arabic translation programmes.
The Arabic language and translation programme, Othman said, targets foreign students.
“The programme follows the credit hour system,” Othman said.
She added that this programme is still in the making and has not been fully implemented yet.
Othman said the postgraduate programmes of her college follow two systems: the old semester system for postgraduate studies, and the newadvanced system that keeps pace with societal requirements.
This latter system, she said, encourages innovation through interdisciplinary programmes that integrate disciplines and benefit from modern technologies.
“The programmes include the translation technology programme that combines computer science and translation, in addition to international programmes that keeppace with Egypt’s vision,” Othman said.
“We try to overcome challenges facing the local and international labour markets,” Othman said.
She added that her college works to give rise to a new generation of German to Arabic and Arabic to German translation specialists in co-operation with the University of Leipzig in Germany.
“We also have the Spanish Language and Culture Programme” the dean said.
She said her college is keen on linkingits students and graduates with the labour market.
The college, she added, organizes an annual recruitment fair for regional and international employers.
“We also give our students 60 hours of field training,” she said.
The College of Al-Alsun obtained accreditation from the Quality Assurance Authority in 2015.
Four of the college’s programmes obtained quality certificates, including most recently in April 2023.
“We are also keen to internationalize research, advance educational outputs, and link our educational programmes with labour market,” Othman said.
“The inclusion of ourfaculty’s logo in the United Nations headquarters in New York and Geneva is a culmination of the efforts of our staff,” Othman said. “It comes in appreciation for the efforts of the faculty and its scientific contributions in translation.”
Discussion about this post