INTRODUCTION

The Association of Arab Universities is an Arab organization with an independent legal personality, headquartered in Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It was established at the initiative of the Cultural Administration of the League of Arab States, which sponsored two symposiums: the first in Benghazi in 1961, attended by specialists in higher education in the Arab world, and the second in Beirut in 1964, to discuss the problems of higher education in the Arab world and to formalize frameworks for cooperation between Arab universities. These two symposiums recommended the establishment of the Association of Arab Universities and the adoption of a proposed draft of the Association’s basic statute, which was approved by the Council of the League of Arab States under Resolution No. 2056 at its 42nd session held on 30 September 1964. This was followed by the establishment of the Association’s temporary General Secretariat in 1965. In September 1969, the first meeting of the Association’s General Conference was held in Alexandria, with the participation of 23 founding Arab universities. The temporary General Secretariat then became the permanent General Secretariat of the Association, and the late Professor Dr. Morsi Ahmed, former Minister of Higher Education of the Arab Republic of Egypt and former President of Cairo University, was elected as the Association’s first Secretary-General.

Vision
AARU is the platform for Arab higher education institutions who aim to strengthen, reinforce the quality of, and transform higher education and research to address challenges and realize prosperous future for their graduates.

Mission
AArU facilitates and supports Arab Universities and higher education stakeholders in the development of state-of-the-art transformational solutions to prepare graduates who master the knowledge and competencies needed in strengthening and serving their national and regional communities; and in integrating globally to address shared challenges and produce impactful results. In this respect, AARU focuses on mobilizing knowledge production and exchange, joint research, and partnerships over collective actions; strengthening the capacities of university systems and staff; empowering student communities; and impacting policies related to universities and higher education.

Goals
The following six goals have been agreed to be the focus for the upcoming period 2019-2030:
1. Establish AArU as the Unique Platform for Arab higher education institutions and stakeholders to access state-of-the-art knowledge and information on higher education and research in the Arab region and around the world, define and discuss priority issues, develop partnerships, and initiate collective actions on education and research with the aim of strengthening their institutions, outcomes and impact.

2. Promote and facilitate the development and strengthening of partnerships among Arab Universities and stakeholders and the collaboration with counterpart associations and institutions at the inter-regional and global level to collaborate on joint research projects, knowledge exchange and production, develop capacities and improve university research and education systems and deliverables, in a way to realize complementarity among these universities.

3. Promote and facilitate the direction towards transformational learning and multi-disciplinary approaches within universities, advising on the reform of structure and contents within universities, as needed, and facilitating the development of organizational and staff capacities to equip the students with the knowledge and intellectual, business and social competencies needed to contribute positively to the development of their societies and to meeting the global challenges.

4. Broaden and strengthen the implementation of quality assurance and accreditation systems and the cross-regional and international recognition of Arab Universities’ awarded degrees.
5. Promote, support and facilitate research, knowledge production and innovation within and among universities to produce solutions for regional and shared global challenges.

6. Strengthen AArU governance and secretariat to enable the Association to perform and realize its reviewed mission, goals and expected outcomes and impact