​The Secretary-General of the Association of Arab Universities (AArU), Dr. Amr Ezzat Salama, chaired the Third International Conference for the affiliated Quality Assurance Administrations Associations of AArU that entitled as “Digitalization and Quality Assurance of Higher Education”, which held in the University of Sadat City under the auspices of Dr. Khaled Abdul-Ghaffar Minister of Higher Education, Arab Republic of Egypt, also in the presence of Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, the President of Sadat City University, Dr. Magda Abul-Safa, the Secretary-General of the Association of Quality Assurance Administrations, and a number of participants from different countries such as: Jordan; Syria; Libya and Somalia. Moreover, the presence of the public and private Egyptian universities, government institutions and private companies’ representatives enriched the conference with fruitful discussions.

In his speech, Dr. Salama, emphasized that the leading international educational experiences highlighted the importance of employing modern technology in improving the educational process, and overcoming the administrative and the financial complications. In addition, he pointed out that the quality of the higher education is one of the means of improving and developing the quality of education and advancing its level in the era of globalization. Which can be described as the era of quality that become as an urgent necessity, where they are dictated by the rapid changes taking place in the higher education sector in all  around the world and contemporary requirements. Dr. Salama said also that the contemporary world is characterized by a highly changing environment, where the competition plays a decisive role in it. Subsequently, the higher education institutions in various countries of the world forced to upgrade and increase their competitiveness in the market by adopting quality standards; creating of mechanisms to maintain their entities, and improving their activities and outputs.

Hence, according to these variables and the trend towards digital education, where there is a need for the authorities concerned with ensuring the quality of education and accreditation of digital education in the Arab world by the following matters; first, establish specific qualitative and quantitative criteria; second, evaluate the outcomes of distance learning programs; and third, follow-up supervision and control of the quality of their programs. Thus, they can obtain academic accreditation and recognition of the graduation certificate from electronic universities, through improving the capabilities and efforts to achieve qualitative educational commensurate with the international standards, as well as preparing and training the educational cadres, also developing the existing external review mechanisms. Taking in account, the integrated transformation in quality management, which is done by the remote external audit visits, virtual visits and field visits. Therefore, Dr. Salama pointed out that the AArU pays attention to scientific research, and looking to achieve the digital transformation strategy and preserving the quality of education. Hence, he looks forward to achieve an outstanding level of university education in Arab universities. Subsequently, keep abreast of the successive developments that the world is witnessing in the field of higher education. Thus, increase ability to attract students and increase the competitiveness of Arab universities