Syrian National TEMPUS Office and its Activities

Syria National TEMPUS Office

Since 1 April 2009, Tempus III and IV management has
been transferred from Directorate-General for Education
and Culture to the Education, Audiovisional and Culture
Executive Agency. The agency is working under the
supervision of the European Commission. The agency relies
on the assistance of network of offices in the Member States
and Partner Countries.
Syria National TEMPUS Office was established in July 2004. It
is housed in the Ministry of Higher Education in Damascus.
The main activities of the office are summarized in the
following paragraphs.

Activities of Syria National TEMPUS Office

Information and promotion

• One of the tasks of the office is the promotion of the TEMPUS Programme to all potential target groups. Syria NTO has organized the following promotion activities since the beginning of the programme in Syria:
• The organization of «TEMPUS Local Information Days» in the four main Public Syrian Universities Damascus, Aleppo, Tishreen, and Al Baath, during the year 2003.
• The organization of the First «National Information Day» on January 28th, 2004 at Damascus University, where all Higher Education Institutions in Syria were invited to participate. This event was coordinated with the European Commission, the Delegation of the European Commission to Syria, and the Ministry of Higher Education.
• Editing and publishing a brochure about the implementation of TEMPUS in Syria in 2003.
• Editing and publishing a brochure about the implementation of TEMPUS in Syria in 2004.
• Editing and publishing Syria NTO website (www.tempus-nto.org.sy).
• Editing and publishing a flyer about TEMPUS in Syria.
• The organization of the «Inauguration of Syria National TEMPUS Office at the Ministry of Higher Education in Damascus» on July 12th, 2004. This event was organized in cooperation with the Delegation of the European Commission to Syria.
• The organization of the Second «National Information Day» on January 19th, 2006 at Tishreen University,Lattakia.
• The participation in «Europe Day» organized by the Delegation of the European Commission to Syria. The event was held on May 7th to 9th, 2006 in Damascus, and on May 12th, 2006 in Aleppo.
• The participation in «Second Europe Day» which was also organized by the Delegation of the European Commission to Syria on June 27th and 28th, 2007 in Damascus, and on June 23rd, 2007 in Aleppo.
• Editing and publishing a brochure about the implementation of Tempus in Syria from 2002 - 2007.
• The organization of the local days in the Syrian Universities (Al-Furat, Al-Baath, Tishreen, and Damascus).
• The organization of the third «National information day» on March 27th, 2008 at Aleppo University.
• Participation in the organization of events and promotion activities of the current Tempus projects.
• Participation in «Study in Europe Day» organized by the European Delegation on 2nd December 2008.
• The organization of the Fourth “National Information Day” on March 1st, 2009 at Al-Baath University.
• The office produced a study of Tempus contribution to the development of Higher Education Sector in Syria.
• This paper was presented by Dr. Rami Ayoubi in ICERI 2009 (International Conference of Education Research
• and Innovation), 16th – 18th Nov. 2009 Madrid, Spain.
• Participating in “Study in Europe Day” organized by the European Delegation on 23 November 2009.
• Editing and publishing the current promotional materials.
• Participation in the 2nd EU Projects Seminar, 13 December 2009.
• Participation in several regional and European TEMPUS information days.
• The organization of the Fifth Tempus Information Day on 07/02/2010 at the Ministry of Higher Education. Al-Bassel Hall, Floor (-1).
• The organization of the follow up meeting for TEMPUS current projects with the Minister of Higher Eduction, 18/08/2010, Ministry of Higher Education.
• Participation in the Eu-Syria Cooperation Days, 25-26/09/2010.
• The organization of the Contact Seminar for Swedish Universities in Syria ( coordinated jointly by National Tempus Office (NTO) in Syria and National Contact Point in Sweden (NCP) )

Advice to applicants

The office participates in the following activities: advising and informing potential applicants throughout the application process, assisting Syrian applicants in the search of European and regional partners and in brining together a well-balanced consortium, assisting EU applicants in the search of local partners, and assisting Syrian universities during the implementation phase of the projects. On June 20th 2005, the office organized a training session on «How to write a winning TEMPUS project proposal». The event was attended by represe tatives of Syrian Universities (public and Private). from 2007 until 2010, the office held more than 100 meetings for candidates wishing to apply to Tempus Programme.

Selection related activities

Upon the request of the European Commission, the office participates in the evaluation process of JEP, SCM, and IMG applications. The latest evaluation was done in September 2009 for 3 projects, where two projects were selected.

Feedback activities on ongoing projects

Syria NTO maintains contacts with and ensures assistance to institutions involved in the implementation of projects, where needed. The office organizes monitoring field visits to the running projects in coordination with the European Commission. From 2007 until 2010, the office ran more than 20 monitoring visits to current projects. This was also supported by several visits to the ongoing projects.

Cooperation and liaison

Syria NTO maintains regular contacts with the European Commission in Brussels, the EC Delegation to Syria, the EC projects in Syria, the UNDP, the Ministry of Higher Education in Syria, the higher education sector, MEDA National TEMPUS Offices, and the EU National Contact Points. The office established very good relationships with other EU projects supporting the Higher Education sector in Syria as the UHES project, FP7, and EMECW. The office participated effectively in several events organized by the previous projects. In this respect, one of the most important meetings organized by the office were the meetings held on 13/01/2008 and the meeting held on 18/08/2010 in the Ministry of Higher Education attended by the Minister of Higher Education in Syria and most TEMPUS Projects coordinators in Syrian Universities to discuss the national priorities, and the progress of the projects.

Conducting studies in internationalization and higher education

The office conducted so far more than five studies about internationalization and higher education. All presented in international conferences by Dr. Rami Ayoubi.

Support to team of Higher Education Reform Experts (HEREs)

The office, under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and Tempus Unit in Brussels, appointed six higher education reform experts in order to attend several training events for the reform of higher education and Bologna process in the European countries. The team of experts attended more than 15 training sessions in Europe and Syria.