This agreement is in line with our mission to provide the higher institutions in the Arab world with quality assurance and accreditation services – Abu-Ghazaleh

BONN, GERMANY --- December 31, 2007 -- An exclusive collaboration agreement was signed recently between the Arab Quality Assurance and Accreditation Network for Education (ARQAANEE) and the Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation (FIBAA).

The agreement was signed at FIBAA's office in Bonn by FIBAA's Managing Director Dr Heinz–Ulrich Schmidt and ARQAANEE's Executive Director, Dr. Bayan Abdulhaq, on behalf of Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, the founder and president of ARQAANEE.

“This agreement is in line with our mission to provide the higher institutions in the Arab world with quality assurance and accreditation services of the highest caliber and to ensure that ARQAANEE's operations, standards and label are in conformance with international standards,” Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh commented.

The objective of this agreement is cooperation with respect to the use and provision of the FIBAA international quality label, which is recognized by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA).

Within the scope of the agreement, FIBAA shall grant to ARQAANEE the right to provide accreditation to educational institutions using the FIBAA international quality label. The right to use the FIBAA label includes: FIBAA's support, development and quality control of the accreditation process as per FIBAA's standards and know-how and training of ARQAANEE's program coordinators, peer reviewers and inspectors. This will ensure that ARQAANEE's operations, standards and quality label are in accordance with international standards.

About FIBAA

FIBAA is a well-established Swiss non-profit quality assurance agency and has operative offices in Zurich, Switzerland and Bonn, Germany. It is acknowledged by the German and Dutch accreditation councils, and by the respective national educational bodies of Switzerland and Austria as the accreditation agency for study programs in economics, business, social sciences and law.

About ARQAANEE

ARQAANEE is a non-profit independent organization that was established in Brussels this year, for the purpose of setting educational standards and providing quality assurance and accreditation services to governmental and private educational institutions in the Arab World.