The Universities and the Concept of Prestigious By: Prof. Dr. Younes Megdadi
Prestigious term, which is well-known to all, has recently been used by the academic community due to its association with university education institutions, due to its importance in light of the global competition in the university education sector towards building reputation, academic standing, etc. Excellence in education, excellence in qualitative scientific research, excellence in its academic leaders and forward-looking thinking, excellence in the sources of qualifications and experience of its academic cadres, excellence in its policies and strategic plans, excellence in its academic classifications, excellence in its academic partnerships and cooperation programs, excellence in the quality of its outputs and graduates, and excellence in its independence The completeness, prestige, and others that contributed to drawing the prestigious identity of the universities, which brought them to what they are without competition, not to mention their distinguished reputation wherever their name is mentioned.
This term has become one of the priorities of the academic community and their questions about how to reach this identity, which is called prestigious. As an attempt to identify prestigiousness with its indicators, let us enter the websites of some prestigious electronic universities that are known to all to watch and examine what is going on in those universities because we have stopped a lot of what we will see or what we will know about them, Which will lead us, therefore, to raise many questions about many facts of these universities and the great achievements they have achieved through their academic record since their founding, and therefore we will discover that these universities are actually floating in another world, which prompted us to address this issue to draw attention to the concept of prestigiousness with its indicators, which may be exciting. For discussion so that we can crystallize the importance of this concept, hoping to work according to it, despite the great and appreciated achievements of our universities since their founding.
We hear, in rare cases, those in a position of responsibility in our universities talking about prestigiousness and its indicators, and their talk is referring to some achievements without going into details, and this may be for certain reasons, but we see that standing on the issue of prestigiousness and its importance as one of the most important elements of building an image, identity and reputation And the status and competitive advantage of universities and the future of their educational career, which many see in urgent need of an analytical pause to diagnose the reality of what is practiced in practice with regard to this concept and its indicators.
For this purpose, we tried to hear the opinions of many of those in the academic community on this subject, most of which indicated that there are challenges facing universities in their management of the issue of prestigiousness with its important indicators. Some say it is due to non-compliance with qualitative criteria in their selection, and a decline in controlling the indicators of building an academic reputation.
This is primarily due to the trend towards quantitative education at the expense of qualitative education, and a decline in the quality of scientific production that is based on quantity rather than quality, and this is due to the small number of academic and research partnerships and the difficulties Contracts with international universities, declining commitment to qualitative standards in attracting faculty members and their prestigious qualifications, inability of universities to enjoy absolute independence academically, administratively and financially, weak infrastructure and many others. Hence, we find that all of these challenges have come to stand in front of university administrations, despite the many attempts to address them as a priority to meet the requirements of prestigiousness and its indicators.
Hence, we see that prestige requires strategic and tactical solutions with the aim of getting rid of the remnants of the aforementioned challenges so that universities can push themselves towards keeping pace with everything that is new instead of wavering in the impossible box, with the urgent need to structure the universities’ strategic plans in a realistic manner, and to focus on the proper selection of academic leaders with relevant expertise and future development programs, focus on qualitative education and scientific research, commitment to qualitative standards for educational inputs and outputs, including the selection of faculty members and the prestige of their qualifications, integration with international universities through real partnerships and cooperation programs, commitment to academic reputation indicators, and adherence to well-known international classification standards to enable our universities to join. Riding the ranks of prestige with its indicators to remain beacons of which the world is proud, in light of the aspirations of everyone and future generations, and in harmony with the aspirations of His Majesty King Abdullah II, son of Al-Hussein the Great, and his trustworthy Crown Prince, may God take care and protect them.
