Abu-Ghazaleh Calls on Students to Embrace the World of Knowledge

17 Feb 2014   Education is a very powerful tool that can totally transform nations and propel them into economic prosperity- HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh
 
MADABA, Jordan -----February 17, 2014------ King's Academy hosted HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, president of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh University (TAGI-UNI), the gateway to the world's best education as a guest speaker at King’s Academy’s 4th annual Model United Nations conference, KAMUN 14.
 
Student delegates from King’s Academy as well as other school in Jordan and the region listened to Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh speak about the main elements required to build a new generation of leaders who will serve their country with creativity and dedication.
 
"It is with great pleasure that I join you here today as a speaker at such a prestigious institution and I thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you and present you with a couple of tips that I have learned through my journey in the business world… a place that you will call "home" in the near future," Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh said.
 
"Education is a very powerful tool that can totally transform nations and propel them into economic prosperity. We can see many examples around us such as the thriving knowledge based economies of the world which are testament to this. While education is certainly a basic human right, access to and the quality of education remain to be two continuing challenges to educators globally." he added.
 
He stated: "Until now, access to elite, world-class education has remained exclusive and unaffordable for the majority of students around the globe. For the first time in history we are in a position to do something about it. Access to world-class education is an inevitability whose time has come."
 
"we need to shift gears from ‘free online education’ to affordable, ‘elite, accredited online education,’” he said.
 
"As a life-long learner myself, I took it as duty to fill this need. I established a concept which encompasses all the characteristics a world-class university should have, called Talal Abu-Ghazaleh University (TAGI-UNI).
 
Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh stressed that the future of world-class education is online.
 
"TAGI-UNI is a pioneering alliance, bringing together the best institutions globally, under one umbrella. Acting as a gateway to online education, TAGI-UNI ensures that only the highest quality online programs are offered to its students from reputable international universities and training institutes. This eases the burden on students to find a reputable online program, supports them in registering with a world-class institution, and provides them with the assurance that they will be backed throughout the duration of their studies by the reputation of the TAGI-UNI mother company, the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization," he said.
 
"I have watched my nine grandchildren – all of whom are digital natives, grow up with the Internet and who were exposed to its intricacies and workings-some of them are sitting here among you Samar and Bilal Abu-Ghazaleh; Talal Abu-Ghazaleh junior graduated from here and he is now in his third year at Yale University. Their experience is increasingly like that of every other student born in the information age," he said.
 
According to Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh education, at its core, is an investment in human potential. Students want to see their investment in education translate into opportunity.
 
"That is why Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization and the Ministry of Labor jointly launched a strategic national project to contribute to alleviation of unemployment and create employment opportunities for Jordanian job seekers in the private sector inside the Kingdom and in both the public and private sectors outside Jordan," he said.
 
Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh continued saying:" Four decades ago, I built Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization with the aspiration to promote intellectual property rights and contribute to the development of a knowledge society in the Arab world. Over the years, our Organization’s scope has broadened, our number of companies has grown."
 
"We have ridden the wave of change over the decades, adapting to technological advances and reinventing ourselves along the way and we were able to overcome the various challenges along the way," he concluded.
 
An exciting session of Q&A was led by students at the end of the lecture.