As a response to an invitation from the Francophone International Organization, Dr. Roshdy Zahran, the President of Alexandria University participated in the second meeting of francophone ministers of higher education on behalf of Dr. Ashraf Alshehy, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The meeting was held on 17th of June, 2016 in Bamako, Mali. The meeting was revolved around “Digital Technology Development initiative in Francophone universities”. In the beginning of meeting the president of Mali Ibrahim Bobakar welcomed all attendants. The meeting was attended by Mali Minster of Higher Education, Secretary-General of Francophone International Organization, ministers, representatives and ambassadors of foreign countries. The president of Mali stressed on the importance of remote education and digital education and called to make use of information technology systems in higher education and cooperation between Francophone countries through joint scientific certificates by electronic education and mutual recognition of conferred certificates.
Dr. Zahran declared that the meeting included the inauguration of the pilot phase of the electronic portal established by the Francophone Academic Agency in presence of the Secretary-General and participation of 23 minister of higher education representing 23 countries. He added that the organization has been implementing the portal since a year as it was mandated by the first meeting of higher education ministers held in June 2015.
The electronic portal will be a mutual destination for open education resources and training programs on the internet. Dr. Zahran noted that an implementation plan was set for full operation within four years and the participants decided to provide all capabilities for the success of the portal.
It is worth to mention that the third meeting will be held in June 2017 in Morocco.