Welcome to the 48th edition of the President’s News Digest.

Last week the University was buzzing with many activities including students’ orientation and many staff development activities.  Many thanks are due to the Deanship of Students Affairs and Evening Studies who organized an excellent orientation day. The 292 Abdulla Nass Theatre was full with an overflow to the registration area. I have personally enjoyed every single presentation made by our staff to make our students’ experience at the university very rewarding. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all colleagues who attended the event to support our students; in particular thanks should go to Dr Faiza Zitouni, Mr Mohammed Najjar, students Affairs team and Ms. Ruqaya for MCing the event.

Dr Assem Al-Hajj, Dr Mohamed Yousif, Dr Radwan Kharabsheh, Dr Adel Al Samman, Dr Ramzi Nekhili, Mr Abdulla ALkhaja and Mr Yasser Abu Seneh organized various staff induction and development workshops. Special thanks should go to Mr Rifat Hussein for helping with the accreditation video, and to Prof Siddeeq Ameen, Dr Ramzi Nekhili, Dr Ammar Jalamneh, and Ustaza Fajer Shams who have contributed to these workshops.

The Deans, the team in Admissions and Registration and PR, academic advisors are still working hard to help improve our students’ registration and recruitment.

Professor Paul Ivey, LSBU Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and External engagement visited the University on 29 September and met the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Prof Waheeb AlKhaja, the President and many colleagues to discuss the New Engineering programmes and the signing ceremony of the memorandum of collaboration between ASU and LSBU. In addition, we have another British visitor, Prof Robert Newton, who is staying with us for 2 weeks to help us with various academic issues.

It was really pleasing to hear last week from the HEA in the UK that Ms Yvonne Johnson’s application for the HEA Senior Fellow has been successful. Many congratulations to Ms Yvonne! This is a fantastic achievement for Yvonne and the University.  Other colleagues who applied for the HEA senior fellowship will hear in due course and Inshallah they will be successful. In addition, Dr Talal Alkawi has achieved the HEA Fellowship status, many congratulations to Dr Talal!

On the evening of 29 September, a dinner was hosted at the Four Seasons by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Professor Waheeb Alkhaja, in honour of Prof Paul Ivey of LSBU which was attended by the Acting Secretary General of the HEC, Dr Mona Albalooshi. The dinner was also attended by the President of the University, Mr Mohamed Alkhaja, member of the ASU Board of Directors, Eng Masous Alhermi, President of the Bahrain Society of Engineers, Ms Chistian Syme, Head of UKTI, Ms Emilia Mateva from UKTI, and colleagues: Dr Assem Alhajj, Dr Ahmed Azzam, Professor Hussein Zedan, Mr Abdulla Alkhaja and Ms Ruqaya Mohsin. The dinner was an opportunity to discuss various matters related to the University’s development and our future plans with LSBU. I am grateful to Ms Tania Kashou’s effort to bring along a good number of external influential people to this dinner and to Ms Ruqaya for selecting a nice place and for dealing with the logistical arrangement.