The fifth Conference of Arab and Turkish University Presidents kicked off on Friday, October 10, 2025, in the Tunisian capital, Tunis. The event is organized by the University of Tunis El Manar, in collaboration with the Association of Arab Universities and the Eurasian Universities Union, bringing together more than 200 university presidents from across the Arab world and Turkey. The sessions will continue through Saturday.
Professor Moez Chaker, President of the University of Tunis El Manar, explained that the conference aims to establish sustainable partnerships between universities through joint academic projects, including student exchanges, dual supervision and degree programs, and the creation of an Arab–Turkish digital platform for the exchange of expertise and knowledge — to be officially launched from Tunisia.
For his part, the Tunisian Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Mounir Belayed, emphasized that hosting this conference reflects Tunisia’s commitment to advancing higher education. He underlined the importance of knowledge alliances as a foundation for intellectual and developmental sovereignty and reaffirmed Tunisia’s ambition to strengthen its position as a regional hub for university education.
In the same context, Omar Ezzat Salama, Secretary-General of the Association of Arab Universities, described academic partnership with Turkey as a strategic priority, highlighting the Union’s efforts toward digital transformation, university ranking, and facilitating student mobility, while reaffirming the Union’s solidarity with Gaza.
Meanwhile, Mustafa Aydın, President of the Eurasian Universities Union, stressed the need to transcend national boundaries in academic collaboration. Abdelmajid Ben Ammara, President of the Arab Council for Scientific Research, added that Arab–Turkish cooperation has become an urgent necessity, noting that the two sides have produced more than 45,000 joint research papers over the past decade.
TunisianMonitorOnline (Douha Essafi)
