An-Najah National University
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| An-Najah National University | |
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| Established: | 1977 |
| Type: | Public |
| President: | Prof. Rami Hamdallah |
| Dean: | Mr. Bilal Salameh |
| Faculty: | 19 faculties |
| Staff: | 465 |
| Students: | 16,500 |
| Location: | Nablus, West Bank,, Palestinian National Authority |
| Campus: | Urban |
| Website: | www.najah.edu |
An-Najah National University is a Palestinian non-governmental public university governed by a board of Trustees. It is located in the mountainous region of northern Palestine in and around the city of Nablus. The university has over 16,500 students and 300 professors in 19 faculties. It is the largest university in Occupied West Bank and one of the largest Palestinian universities.
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[edit] History
An-Najah traces its roots to 1918, when it was founded as the An-Najah Nabulsi School. It became An-Najah College in 1941 and a two-year community college in 1963. It was upgraded to An-Najah National University in 1977, starting with two colleges: the College of Arts and the College of Science.
In 1988, during the First Intifada, the campus was declared a "closed military area" by Israel and did not reopen until 1991.
It has grown rapidly in recent years with many former students becoming professors after completing their PhD’s.
Of the 13 members of the university student council (including one in Israeli army custody), eight belong to the Islamic Block. Like all the other Palestinian universities, An-Najah National University was accused by the Israeli authorities of having a relationship with terrorism. The university rejects this and condemns all kinds of terror especially what it calls the state terror practiced by Israel against the university and its students.[1]
An-Najah's record of community work has been a major motive for building solidarity links with it. Alongside the extent to which the Israeli occupation affects the An-Najah[2].
[edit] Student body
Most of the students are Palestinian, but there are also students and professors from all over the world. A variety of languages are spoken on campus, including English, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Arabic.
[edit] Faculty
The University president is Professor Dr.al hamdalla. The Vice-President for Academic Affairs is Professor Dr. Maher Natsheh and the Vice-President for Administration Affairs is Dr. Mohammad Hannon.
Ahmad Khaldi was a professor and dean of law.
[edit] Courses taught
The University has sixteen Scientific Faculties and Humanities Faculties.
- The Scientific Faculties include:
- Faculty of Science
- Faculty of Engineering
- Faculty of Agriculture
- Faculty of Pharmacy
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
- Faculty of Information Technology
- Faculty of Human Medicine
- Faculty of Optometry
- Faculty of Nursing
- The Humanities Faculties include:
- Faculty of Arts
- Faculty of Islamic Law (Shari'a)
- Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences
- Faculty of Educational Sciences
- Faculty of Fine Arts
- Faculty of Law
- Faculty of Graduate Studies.
[edit] Cooperation and Foreign Exchange
The university of An-Najah has several partner universities. These account with their exchange students for a significant part of the foreign students at An-Najah. Another number of foreign students are drawn to An-Najah for the courses in Arabic for foreigners offered by the university.
There is a twinning between An-Najah National University and the University of Manchester Students' Union since 2006 in spite of substantial opposition. A very wide campaign also was held to cancel either have the An-Najah Union sign a declaration denouncing terrorism or to cancel the twinning in 2007 but the campaign was heavily defeated when it came to a vote.[3]. An-Najah is also currently twinned with the London School of Economics union.
Partner universities are:
- Fachhochschule Darmstadt (University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt), Darmstadt, Germany
