On June 19, 2023, the 46th lecture of Fudan-LSE Lecture Series was successfully held in Siyuan Hall, West Main Building of Guanghua Towers. Professor Amr Ezzat Salama, Secretary-General of the Association of Arab Universities, gave a lecture on The future of Higher Education (H.E.) in the Arab World and the Impact of H.E. on Global Human Development. The lecture was chaired by Professor Jing Yijia, Dean of the Institute of Global Public Policy, and Co-Director of LSE-Fudan Research Centre for Global Public Policy, Fudan University. Professor Sun Degang, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies of Fudan University, and Mr. Chen Yaozhang, Director of Fudan University Education Development Foundation (Overseas) served as discussants.

Before the lecture, Prof. Jing introduced Prof. Salama's experience and achievements, and extended a sincere welcome to Prof. Salama for his visit of the Global Public Policy Institute. Prof. Salama has extensive experience in teaching, research and management, and is currently the Secretary-General of the Association of Arab Universities. He was also a Counselor of the American University in Cairo, a President of the Helwan University and a former Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Technology of Egypt, who received the State Award for Science in Engineering Science in 2012. 

At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Salama introduced the basic situation of Arab High Education (H.E.). He described the main characteristics of Arab H.E. in terms of its history, geographical distribution, and funding sources. Prof. Salama then discussed the problematic challenges and countermeasures for promoting the development of H.E. in the Arab region. He further introduced the main action plans of the Association of Arab Universities, such as the classification of Arab universities, the Impact Project, the Journal Development Project, and the establishment of various academic awards. Finally, Prof. Salama stressed the importance of China-Arab educational cooperation for developing Arab H.E. and expressed the hope for more cooperation between Arab universities and Fudan University in experience exchange, teacher-student mutual visits,joint scientific research, etc.

After the keynote speech, Prof. Sun and Director Chen made comments respectively. Prof. Sun summarized the five major challenges to developing Arab H.E. and proposed revolutions of Arab H.E. in value, funding and university cooperation. Director Chen believes that Arab universities can not only carry out cooperation with China in education, teaching and scientific research, but also learn from China's H.E. management. In particular, he stressed the important role of H.E. in relation to youth values.

Finally, Prof. Jing summarized the lecture. He believes that higher education is crucial to the modern knowledge society, and shoulders the missions of cultivating talents, creating knowledge and promoting social progress. Both China and Arab countries are sparing no effort to promote the development of higher education. With the common purposes and responsibilities, the cooperation between China and Arab higher education will achieve positive and far-reaching results.

On behalf of the Institute for Global Public Policy, Prof. Jing then presented Professor Salama with a pen, ink and paper symbolizing traditional Chinese culture, and once again expressed his gratitude to Prof. Salama. After that, all the guests took a group photo, and the lecture ended successfully in a lively atmosphere.