6th MENA-HELF Theme
Towards a New Generation of Engaged Universities:
The Need to Act, Adapt and Transform
16th – 18th April, 2024 | Dubai, UAE
The 6th MENA Higher Education Leadership Forum (MENA-HELF) organized by the Center for Learning Innovations and Customized Knowledge Solutions (CLICKS) will be back in April 2024 in its 6th edition.
We invite you to join more than 300 senior leaders and decision makers from across the globe during our flagship two-day and a half event to discuss and debate emerging trends impacting higher education, opportunities, barriers and practical challenges encountered as well as solutions and strategies universities must adopt to meet the rapidly disruptive environment in which it operates and embrace transformation.
The MENA HELF aims to bring together higher education leaders, decision makers, researchers and representatives from different regulatory bodies, IGOs/ NGOs, etc. to exchange and share their experiences on various aspects of Higher Education. It also provides a dynamic platform to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and good practices.
Why Join the 6th MENA-HELF?
- A broad range and variety of activities, including workshops, panel discussions, debates, focus groups, presentations of case studies, keynote addresses and practitioner insights.
- A professional, friendly, and engaging environment for networking with peers from different parts of the globe.
- A unique learning opportunity for individuals working to transform their universities to ensure they continue to be agile and responsive to a very dynamic future
- A hands-on learning occasion through workshops, learn by doing through participating in practical workshops prior to the start of the conference.
- Learn new tools and methodologies, reflect on your own understanding and experience and interact and network with peers.

It is Time to Transform Higher Education
Higher education just like any other industry has been subject to disruptive forces on a global scale and is facing unprecedented challenges and one of the biggest periods of uncertainty. There is not a single aspect of education today that hasn’t been utterly shaken by technological advancements, financial pressures, changes in society demands, educational reforms, and more recently by the pandemic which has exacerbated the pressures that higher-education institutions face.
There has been a raising number of fundamental questions about higher education, some of which include:
- How do we cope with rapid technological changes and effectively embrace them?
- How do we prepare students for jobs that do not exist yet and for challenges we cannot anticipate?
- How do we ensure our research is impactful and meaningful in addressing some of the most pressing political, economic, socio-cultural challenges we face?
- How can we compete in industries and with business models that haven’t even been invented yet?
Universities across the globe are striving to overcome these challenges, overcome these disruptive forces and find answers to many of the above questions to ensure they continue to bring relevance and to positively contributing in enriching their societies. Leaders of higher education need to adapt to a new era of “always being ready to transform”.
As the pace of change continues to accelerate, transformation has become an imperative and universities are in need to adopt radical transformation that enables to operate in a more flexible and resilient manner and to emerge stronger on the long run. Crisis very often require us to renew ourselves, albeit in a disruptive way.
The 6th MENA-HELF will explore the meaningful prospects that higher education institutions can bring such as innovative learning and teaching practices that will prepare students for future jobs, the overall student experience and how it contributes to student success and to prepare a new generation of leaders, the importance of lifelong learning, the contribution of the sector towards the community and towards achieving sustainable development goals.
Streams
The MENA HELF returns in April of 2024 for its Sixth edition addressing the following streams
Track (1) | Innovation for Societal Impact
Universities have a crucial role towards serving its community which has over the years been seen as one of its three fundamental purposes. More importantly, they are vital to progressing the SDG agenda across all four of their functions: learning and teaching, research, external leadership and internal operations & management. This goes beyond mapping existing SDG capabilities, to embedding sustainability vertically and horizontally across diverse communities of practice. For universities to perform their unique function as enablers of change, they need to simultaneously embrace their role as targets for and enablers of change, ensuring that they are role modelling the sort of approaches and impacts they want to engender. This track will discuss a number of crucial issues that include:
- Sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals
- Lifelong learning
- Non-traditional forms of education (Micro credentials / stackable degrees)
- University- industry collaborations
- Service to society
Track (2) | Adaptive Teaching and Learning
Experts across higher education suggest that education should focus on developing student employability skills by developing more engaging learning experiences that build student autonomy. Curriculum must be continuously reviewed and enhanced to meet the industry rapidly changing environment. In addition, much has been said and written about the need to consider less structured curricula and making room for more variety: calling for new paths, multiple streams, a wider array of credentials that will enable people to upskill and reskill themselves as needed and put those skills to work immediately. Topics considered in this track include:
- Digital Education
- Teaching Experiences
- Transformative
- Pedagogy & Practice
- Innovative
- Technologies for T L (AI, virtual & augmented reality, big data & analytics, etc.)
- Assessment Theories & Methodologies
- Curriculum Design & Development to embed the skills graduates need for the careers of the future.
- Adult, Lifelong & Distance Learning
- Interdisciplinary, Multidisciplinary & Transdisciplinary Education
Track (3) | Innovative Research
Very often, there has been a misunderstanding about the role that research plays at educational institutions and the contribution it makes on teaching, students, the university and society as a whole. The trend has been to rely primarily on the use quantitative metrics to evaluate research rather than to promote impactful and meaningful research that promotes creativity and intellectual initiative and which is essential for universities to transform and engage with other industries and the society at large. This track will explore a number of topics on how institutions are promoting and nurturing creativity, innovation while leveraging on technological advancements.
- Nurturing Creativity & Innovation
- Knowledge Creation
- New Models for Research Collaborations
- Using Technology to deliver greater research impact
- AI and its role in improving human intelligence, performance and productivity
- New metrices for evaluating research impact
Track (4) | Enhancing the Student Experience
Very often, there has been a misunderstanding about the role that research plays at educational institutions and the contribution it makes on teaching, students, the university and society as a whole. The trend has been to rely primarily on the use quantitative metrics to evaluate research rather than to promote impactful and meaningful research that promotes creativity and intellectual initiative and which is essential for universities to transform and engage with other industries and the society at large. This track will explore a number of topics on how institutions are promoting and nurturing creativity, innovation while leveraging on technological advancements.
- Nurturing Creativity & Innovation
- Knowledge Creation
- New Models for Research Collaborations
- Using Technology to deliver greater research impact
- AI and its role in improving human intelligence, performance and productivity
- New metrices for evaluating research impact