QNB sponsors inaugural Mena varsities summit

QNB has announced its sponsorship of the inaugural “Mena Universities Summit” organised by Qatar University (QU) in partnership with Times Higher Education (THE) Magazine.The summit, which opens today at QU and will run until February 24, is expected to gather more than 200 delegates, including senior university and research leaders from around the world, senior representatives and policymakers from high education, research, innovation, business, and government institutions, and senior global industry leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs.“Education is considered one of the six fields of focus for QNB’s CSR activities. QNB not only provides care and support for the education sector in Qatar, but takes a further step to offer assistance to educational events outside the state as well,” the bank said in a statement.QU is Qatar’s first national university, and is the home of more than 16,000 students distributed in eight colleges, the most recent of which is the College of Medicine. The university offers a wide range of undergraduate programmes and 26 graduate programmes. Over the last few years, QU witnessed “outstanding” research accomplishments, with many of its colleges and academic programmes gained accreditation status from prestigious international associations.QNB said, “Qatar currently hosts some of the world’s finest, most prestigious universities through the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. QNB offers a group of programmes and scholarships for Qatari nationals in most of these universities in order to graduate a qualified Qatari workforce.”The summit, dedicated to academic leaders within and beyond the Mena region, will feature consultations on the creation of a new addition in the the rankings portfolio — the “Mena University Rankings,” a ranking of regional universities in the Mena region. It will also feature sessions on university leadership, international research collaboration, industry-university collaboration and teaching excellence.QNB currently operates in 26 countries across three continents and has 14,500 employees in 615 office locations. Its support of the summit comes as part of its continuous efforts to support education in the region and across its global network of operations. The QNB Group is committed to not only providing premium banking services to its clients, but also to enriching the communities as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme.