Connecting universities and schools means better education, says new book jointly edited by QF president
Francisco Marmolejo talks about the impact of collaboration between educational institutions amid COVID-19 pandemic
EDUCATION experts at Qatar Foundation have explored collaborations between higher education and schools in different parts of the world – which, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic, have increased – in a new book.
Co-authored by Qatar Foundation, University and School Collaborations during a Pandemic’ was released in English and Spanish on October 5, 2021, and was downloaded 12,000 times in the first 24 hours. The English copy has now reached 31,000 downloads.
Francisco Marmolejo, president of Higher Education at Qatar Foundation, who coedited the book with Fernando Reimers, from Harvard University, described the pandemic as an opportunity to foster collaboration between universities and schools, address existing challenges that stem from them working in isolation, and identifying ways to resolve them.
“The book has shed light on the lessons learned from the pandemic era for the future of education,” he said. “It has examined concrete cases of collaboration from Qatar and 15 other countries, some of which existed before the pandemic and others that were created after the crisis began, where universities were reaching out to schools to support them as they continued education remotely.
“At the same time, these universities were also learning from schools, enriching their own educational experience for their students. This form of multidirectional collaboration has emphasized the merit of breaking the ivory towers’ separating educational institutions from one another.”
Marmolejo believes the
global interest in the book, reflected by download levels in the first week since it was released, is due to the timeliness of the topics it focuses on: understanding how connections between universities and schools can be successful, and how those connections are instrumental for improving education.
A chapter of the book – coauthored by Buthaina Ali Al Nuaimi, president of Pre-University Education at Qatar Foundation Hend Zainal, executive director for Higher Education Strategy, Management and Partnerships and Marmolejo – was dedicated to showcasing the global uniqueness of Qatar Foundation’s educational ecosystem, which contains the full educational system from kindergarten to postdoctoral education.
“The model of engagement between universities, elementary and secondary education within QF proves that collaboration is possible, can work harmoniously, and can be extrapolated to institutions outside Qatar’s borders,” said Marmolejo.
“Also, it describes how each school in the elementary and secondary education at Qatar Foundation specialises in a unique area of expertise or has a unique personality’, and how it connects with a unique component of higher education.”
Highlighting the key takeaways from the cases studied in the book - which will soon be released in other languages, including Arabic and Vietnamese –Marmolejo said the multidirectional collaboration between universities and schools has the capacity to benefit students. He also said there is a need to continue studying the topic in order to identify best practices that may eventually be taken into consideration by educational institutions across the globe and that research capabilities within universities can be used more effectively for the benefit of education on many levels.
“Our university students at QF have actively volunteered to engage with secondary and elementary schools,” said Marmolejo. “And the lessons learned for them as individuals, as they continue preparing themselves to become citizens and professionals of the future, has been dramatic and significant. This is a result of collaboration. A similar situation has happened with university faculty members and school teachers.”
The book can be downloaded through the following link https: link.springer.com book 10.1007 978-3-03082159-3