TASHBEEK workshops in Egypt

In relation to activity 6, The project Egyptian team lead, Prof Rasha Abd El Aziz (PI) publicized, disseminated and communicated the project aim, potential, international collaboration and funding source to academics, students, and NGO leaders through three stakeholders awareness and capacity building sessions that involved males and females. Participants were highly engaged and discussed what they thought could be the challenges/obstacles, and whether they believe that the network would add value. The capacity building sessions aimed to create awareness on women leaders’ challenges and empowerment in the higher education sector:

• 19 March 2024: 23 participants (9 males and 14 females).
• 23 July 2024: 18 participants (5 males and 13 females).
• 30 July 2024: 24 participants (14 males and 10 females).

The Egyptian team lead, Prof. Rasha Abd El Aziz has also participated in the annual international multi-industry-focused conference, Techne Summit in Cairo Stadium on the 25th to the 27th of May, with the aim of connecting Europe and Africa to the Middle East that has around 15000+ attendees. Participants and audience included the Minister of communication, the Swedish Ambassador, CEOs, University Vice presidents, Deans, Head of departments, academics, policy makers, industry representatives, and students. Networking was useful and the discussions conducted by the Egyptian PI during coffee breaks with other participants were of great value.

On the 5th of July, Prof Rasha Abd El Aziz, the project Egyptian PI participated in the Rotary handover event at Sohphia’s Kitchen in Alexandria, where over 100 participants (males and females, with the majority being females) of NGO officers, CEOs, academics, professionals, students and policy makers attended. PI has managed to disseminate the current situation in the Egyptian context, the calling need for gender equality, especially in higher education leadership, highlighted the project activities and communicated the type of collaboration and funding source with participants. The presentation was impactful, and we received very positive feedback and engagement after the session.

On the 21st of May, the Egyptian PI, Prof. Rasha Abdelaziz, together with Dr. Miran Ismail and Dr. Nourhan Hamdy disseminated the importance of connecting female academics in senior leadership positions at two workshops that involved 19 participants of students and academics (13 males and 7 females) and 15 participants (1 male and 14 females) attended the workshop and learned from the project team more about the project potential and how it could be a life changing if more females did not have a ceiling glass. The workshops included discussions through informal meetings and feedback correspondence with academic staff. Many follow up phone calls, together with the WhatsApp messages were received after the workshop thanking, asking, and commenting on the positive impact on the workshop. This revealed the excitement, enthusiasm and appreciation from participants.

In relation to activity 4, On the 25th of June, the Egyptian PI, Prof. Rasha Abd El has conducted a one-to-one interview with the only female university president in Egypt, Prof. Reem Bahgat to discuss the current situation, obstacles and challenges, together with future visions and female academic leader’s network . Then, Prof. Rasha Abd El Aziz conducted a very useful focus group discussion with four deans (3 females and one male).

The Egyptian team, namely Prof. Rasha Abd El Aziz and Dr. Miran Ismail conducted several focus group discussions with academic staff involving 4 head of academic departments (all females), 17 academic participants (15 females 2 males), 12 females, 11 participants (9 females 3 males), 11 participants (8 males and 3 females)”