Thematic Session 3 : Assessment of Learning Outcomes in Tertiary Education

Prof. Einas Aleisa is the rector of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (PNU), the largest allwomen university in the world boasting around 35 thousand female students, over 2000 faculty, and granting more than 90 different academic degrees.
In accordance with Saudi Arabian Vision 2030, PNU has women empowerment as one of its 4 main strategic directions. As a second generation female academic leader herself, Prof. Aleisa holds empowering Saudi women as a personal objective of hers.
Prof. Aleisa holds a PhD degree in Anatomy and Neurobiology from the University of Dalhousie, Canada. She is a well-established researcher in her field publishing over 50 refereed articles throughout her career in academia.
Prior to her appointment as rector, Prof. Aleisa held several executives positions in King Saud University (KSU). Her last appointment before joining PNU was Vice Rector for Female Student Affairs.
During her tenure as Vice Rector in KSU,she led many initiatives that supported women empowerment. Chief among them is establishing the National Observatory for Women, which is an entity that measures the contribution of Saudi women to the economy through a complex index.
Prof. Aleisa is a member in many national boards and committees such as the board for Education and Training Evaluation Commission, the National Steering Committee for Women in the Workforce, and the Saudi Universities Council.

Moderator for Discussion – Day Two – Thematic Session 3

Dr. AbdulRahman Alkhorayef currently holds the position of Deputy Minister of Education for Public Universities. He obtained his PhD in Economics and Management (Business Administration – Management of Decision Making) from the University of Leeds – Master’s degree in Business Administration – University of Leeds – UK and an Advanced Diploma in Management Consulting – Institute of Management Consulting – UK.

In addition to his many responsibilities as deputy minister, Dr. Alkhorayef monitors both academic and administrative policies in twenty-eight public universities. He also participated in the chairmanship of many councils, national committees both locally and in the gulf region.

The current deputy minister assumed a number of roles as part of his work experience. Most recently, he served as an advisor at the Royal Court (Adviser to His Excellency the Advisor in the Royal Court, Dr. Hamad bin Muhammad Al Sheikh. He also worked an Executive Director of the Center for Labor Market Studies. His past experiences included his role as an advisor and member of the Executive Committee of the University Investment Fund in Imam Muhammed bin Saud Islamic University.  Lastly, as the head of Business Administration Department – Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University. Dr. Alkhorayef attained many recognitions achieving first place in the Haremela Scientific Excellence Award, 1436 AH and the Research Excellence Award at the Fifth Saudi International Conference in the United Kingdom, Warwick 1432 AH. Before that, he won the Research Excellence Award at the first graduate student ceremony in the United Kingdom and Ireland, London 1431 AH.

Lastly, winning first place in the Leeds University competition for the best business plan for the year 2009, Leeds 1430 AH.

Dirk Van Damme (PhD, Ghent University) is Senior Counsellor in the Directorate for Education and Skills at the OECD in Paris, and acting Head of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. Before joining the OECD in 2008, he was professor of educational research (Ghent University, Belgium) and comparative education (Free University Brussels, Belgium, visiting professor at Seton Hall University, NJ, USA), was counsellor for several Flemish education ministers (1992-2000), General Director of the Flemish Rectors’ Conference VLIR (2000-2003), and chief of staff of minister Frank Vandenbroucke (2004-2008). He published extensively on educational quality assurance and evaluation and was a board member and expert to various quality assurance agencies and international organisations. His current interests are the science of learning, comparative analyses of educational systems, lifelong learning and higher education policy and evaluation.

He graduated in Biology and has a PhD in Morphogenetic Sciences and Cell Biology. In the Italian QA Agency (ANVUR) since 2012, he worked on the first “Research quality assessment” exercise (VQR 2004-2010), then as an evaluation expert for higher education institutions. Currently he is head of the “Self-assessment, Periodic Evaluation, Accreditation” Unit.

He has a direct experience in the development of public policies in the field of higher education; an advanced knowledge of the Italian and European higher education context; an in-depth knowledge of Quality Assurance systems and a direct experience in the definition of the National Qualifications Framework in the extra-European context.

Director of CIPES - the Center for Research in Higher Education Policies and Professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Porto. He has served as an adviser on Higher Education and Science to the President of Portugal since April 2016. He was Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs at the University of Porto (2014-208) and was also a member of Portugal’s National Council of Education (2014-2018). He has also served on the evaluation panels for the European University Association (EUA) and the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA).He is also a member of the Board of Governors and Secretary General of the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers (CHER), a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), and an Associate Researcher of the Program for Research on Private Higher Education (PROPHE).

Dr. Bajammal is an academic orthopedic spine surgeon, researcher, and educator. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. He pursued orthopedic surgery training at McMaster University & subspecialty fellowship training in orthopedic trauma and spine surgery at the University of Calgary. He obtained a MSc degree in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University. He won 3 research awards at McMaster University.
Dr. Bajammal has held multiple leadership positions in healthcare and academic institutions. He was behind the idea of establishing the Saudi Spine Society in 2014, for which he became the founding Vice President of the Society in its first term (2016-2019). He was behind the idea of establishing the Saudi Association of Health Professionals Education in 2019. He was the founding Director of the Research Center at King Abdullah Medical City, then held the CEO position. Dr. Bajammal joined ETEC in November 2019 to lead the National Center for Academic Accreditation & Evaluation (NCAAA). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Education & Training Evaluation Commission, and the Board of Directors of the National eLearning Center. Dr. Bajammal is the Vice President of the Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ANQAHE).