Bulgarian researchers’ secondment from UNWE to AASTMT in Alexandria, Egypt
During the final two working days of the Bulgarian researchers’ secondment from UNWE to AASTMT in Alexandria, Egypt, they had the opportunity to engage in constructive dialogues and share best practices with key academic leaders. These included Prof. Dr. Ayman Adel Abdel-Hamid, Dean of the College of Computing and Information Technology; Prof. Dr. Abeer Refky, Dean of the College of Languages and Communication; Prof. Dr. Ahmed Elsamadicy, Vice Dean for Education at the College of Management and Technology; as well as faculty members from the colleges above. Among the subjects of the dialogues were the use and misuse of AI, the need to adapt classes and assessments to the new digital reality, the necessity of motivating students to continue thinking and creating despite using new tools, the evolution of the concept of plagiarism, the relationship between ethics and digitalization, and more. Moreover, there was a memorable visit to the PLANETARIUM at the AASTMT Main Campus, and they enjoyed it.
At the beginning of the above-mentioned meetings, Prof. Dr. Ahmed Khalifa Mehanna and Prof. Mahmoud Mansour informed the hosts about the STUDIES-DIG Project and the entire consortium participating in the project. In addition, the hosts were informed that the project is funded by the European Commission under the umbrella of Horizon Call MSCA Staff Exchanges. The specific purposes of the project WP2 and the goal of the staff secondment were also clarified. During those meetings, there was an interview with the hosts and the participants in the Horizon project who were also asked to spread and fill in a questionnaire prepared by the Bulgarian researchers based on the templates distributed by the Romanian partners, leaders of WP2. The meetings took place in the AASTMT Main Campus and another Centric Campus, (AASTMT Miami Campus), but in the same spirit of hospitality, multicultural comprehension, and mindfulness. During this week, the team went to a Bedouin Restaurant in Alexandria, enlarging their multicultural cooperation by enjoying traditional Egyptian cuisine.
