The PEACE Programme, a unique Interuniversity Cooperation Network

Economic, political, socio-cultural, and historical conditions converge to make human resources a major asset of the Palestinians. Since their natural resources are scarce, their main chance for sustainable development lies in the ability to develop a knowledge intensive economy,. A viable, efficient, and high-quality system of tertiary education turned to the realities and needs of the Palestinian people, is of paramount importance to reach this objective. It also ranks among the first conditions to be fulfilled for attaining statehood and self rule by the Palestinians.

Palestinian higher education is at the cornerstone of Human Resources Development and of Capacity Building in Palestine. Its further development is included in the provisions of the Palestinian Strategic Development Plan prepared by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. PEACE acts in keeping with these provisions, by focusing its action on the enhancement of the quality of teaching, training and research at Palestinian universities.

Palestinian higher education institutions are facing enormous difficulties. While enrolments have been growing at high rates, financial and material means to sustain that growth have diminished considerably, especially after the second Intifada. Lack of finances and material means has resulted in serious difficulties in maintaining quality of programmes. The student/ teacher ratio has been seriously affected. Library resources are insufficient and research needs to be seriously reinforced in terms of planning and funding.

Allocations for higher education in the budget of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) have been reduced because of the urgency to meet other priority needs. External donor support has also tended to go down, especially after the switch in donor agency policy from capacity building to meeting humanitarian and immediate relief priorities. Reliance on tuition fees did not materialize because of the dramatic drop in revenues of the Palestinians.

The GP can best be described as an ensemble of activities undertaken by a network of universities as an expression of solidarity with sister institutions that have known and are continuing to encounter enormous difficulties and look to the world academic community for support. Its broad range of actions could be subsumed along the following main lines:

1. The first line of action pursued by PEACE is to support Palestinian postgraduate students and young academics to upgrade their training abroad and to obtain higher degrees. For that purpose it has set up the PEACE Scholarship Scheme, aimed at providing possibilities for graduate studies abroad for Palestinian students and young academics.

2. The second main line of action concerns promoting academic mobility and faculty exchanges. Faculty exchanges are essential to keep Palestinian academics in close touch with their colleagues in the European universities. It is equally important for European academics and institutions to get in touch with outstanding Palestinian scholars and researchers.

3. The third line of action taken by PEACE concerns setting up academic programmes and promoting research. With regard to academic programmes, action is aimed mainly at establishing graduate programmes at the master level. Research is a high priority at present for the Palestinian universities.

4. The PEACE Programme encourages also bilateral cooperation among European and Palestinian universities. Many PEACE member universities have signed comprehensive cooperation agreements with Palestinian universities on a bilateral basis and have submitted them to their national authorities and to other donors for financial support.

5. Another concern is to make the situation of Palestinian higher education better known in the international academic community. This is achieved mainly through international conferences, organized jointly with the General Assembly meetings. The six conferences held thus far have been very well attended and have given fresh impetus to the PEACE Programme. The list of Conferences below presents their titles, place and dates. Because of difficulties created by the situation in the region, PEACE could not organize them at two years interval, alternatively in Europe and in Palestine.
- The founding international Conference of the PEACE Programme, Jerusalem, 1 November 1991;
- Academic Cooperation in Support of the Palestinian Higher Education Institutions held in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 18-19 November 1994;
- The Role of Higher Education in the Context of an Independent Palestinian State, Nablus, 7-9 November 1996;
- Five years of Autonomous Rule in Palestine. The Role of International Cooperation in Higher Education Ghent, Belgium, 23-24 April 1999;
- University Cooperation for the Progress of Civil Society in Palestine, Bethlehem 25-27 February 2005;
- Research Development at Palestinian Universities, UNESCO Paris, 4-5 November 2007.

The 7th International PEACE Conference to be held on 22 and 23 November 2010 at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, will be devoted to International Academic Cooperation and the Palestinian Universities. To mark the celebration of 2010 as the International Year of the Rapprochement among Cultures, a special session of the Conference will be devoted to the Role of universities in promoting dialogue among cultures and civilizations.