The turmoil in the global economy over the past two years illuminates the challenges facing global business leaders-Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh

KUWAIT --- February 17, 2010 --- The Annual Conference of the Arab Organization for Quality Assurance in Education (AROQA) entitled “New Trends in Business Education” was inaugurated today in collaboration with the College of Business Administration at Kuwait University, E-City for King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org), Hala February Festival 2010, Kuwait Association for Human Resource Development (Erteqaa), and the Arab Society of Faculties of Business Administration.

The two-day event held at the Kuwait University, under the patronage of her Excellency Dr. Moudhi Al-Humoud, Kuwaiti Minister of Education and Higher Education focused on the global new trends in business education, including the importance of improving the contents of business education, adopting new educational methods that respond to the changing needs of business institutions and preparing a generation of business leaders for the increasingly more complex, connected and competitive environments.

Deputizing for the Minister, Dr. Abdullah Al Fuhaid, president of the Kuwait University stressed on the importance of education, quality and planning adding that the University will enter into several agreements with the Arab Organization for Quality Assurance in Education.

Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, TAG-Org"s Chairman & CEO said, "The turmoil in the global economy over the past two years illuminates the challenges facing global business leaders."

"The traditional market-oriented Western approach focused exclusively on the bottom line will no longer suffice. The near collapse of many of the world"s largest financial institutions ( which were saved only by government bailouts) and the humiliation of virtually all of the rest, demonstrate clearly the limits of financial engineering , the evidence of pervasive greed and financial chicanery that have been shown to be among the major factors responsible for the global financial crisis demonstrate clearly the critical importance of integrating ethics issues into business education, not merely as separate sub-discipline but at the core of the business decision-making process," he said.

"I am particularly enthused about this conference"s emphasis on "Bringing the Real World Into Teaching and Learning" and on the importance of "ICT in Business Education," these should be viewed basically as opposite sides of the same coin," he added.
Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh stressed on the fact that leading business schools now have the capability to turn every laptop into a laboratory.

"And students in those schools, relying heavily on case study methodologies, are performing ever more realistic analyses of real world business decisions incorporating "real time - real world" events into the decision making process. Until Arab business students are motivated and enabled to do the same we will continue to get "second class" decisions in a world where only "world class" decisions will suffice." He said.

" I am hopeful this conference will be an important step on the long path to world class business leadership in the Arab world." He added.

The conference sessions included: Ethics Education in Business Schools, Information and Communication Technologies and Business Education, Bringing the Real World into Teaching and Learning, and Aligning Management Education and Research with the Ever-changing Needs of Organizations and Economy.

Meanwhile, a pre-conference workshop entitled “Case Teaching Workshop” was conducted in cooperation with ecch –UK to train participants on the use of case studies in teaching and attendees will enjoy a comprehensive exhibition with the participation of publishing houses, educational material companies, media, libraries, and educational and business institutions.

The Arab Organization for Quality Assurance in Education (AROQA) is an international non- profit independent association established in Belgium in 2007 with the fundamental objective of raising the quality of education in the Arab world through providing quality assurance services, capacity building and the dissemination of good practices. The founder and president of AROQA is Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, under the Honorary Presidency of his Excellency Mr. Amre Moussa, the Secretary General of the League of Arab States.
www.aroqa.org