The partner countries involved in this proposal, namely Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq (but also some of the Programme Countries involved, such as Turkey and Germany) are experiencing a very critical situation due to the high number of refugees present on their territory: most of these are Syrian citizens, and include a high percentage of former University students who had to interrupt their academic curriculum.The main specific objective of RESCUE is to help the Partner Country Universities in structuring an effective response to this problem, by creating ad hoc units (the Refugee Student Operational Support Unit – R-SOS), whose mission is to structure specific services supporting the refugee students in resuming their academic training path. The analysis carried out by the target Universities has shown that each one of them has different approaches and constraints vis-à-vis this problem, therefore ad hoc solutions must be implemented in each one of them.Hence each EU university with an experience in dealing with this issue has cooperated with the Universities of one specific MENA Country: TU Berlin supported the Lebanese Universities, Aydin University supported the Jordanian Universities whereas Barcelona University supported the Iraqi Universities.One major change in the partnership composition was made in order to increase the project impact in terms of refugees to be reached: in January 2019 the Lebanese International University was added as a partner and had to make a big effort to catch up with the other partners. Once the R-SOS units have become operational during the first half of 2019, the services they deliver help the refugee students in resuming their academic training path, in some cases by accessing the standard curricula on the same basis as all the other students, in some other cases by following ad hoc training courses providing them with basic skills and competencies useful for employment purposes.Therefore the setting up of the R-SOS units is helping in improving the situation of the refugee students either by supporting them in getting a job in the hosting countries either in preparing them for returning to their origin country once the crisis is over.

A solid public health system constitutes a pillar of advanced societies, capable of providing their citizens with an enabling environment for development and smart and inclusive societies. All countries in Europe and beyond need to address increasingly global health challenges with the support of innovative approaches and skilled professionals. To do so, HEIs need to introduce programmes with a wide range of skills and disciplines, superseding fragmented or insufficient approaches. This situation of fragmented and insufficient approaches is particularly demanding in the South Mediterranean countries due, i.a., to its political and socio-economic climate. Competence-based education and multidisciplinary approaches are essential to prepare public health specialists for organising and managing actions able to improve the health conditions of the populations, reduce inequalities, strengthen the public health and health care systems and transfer innovation-related knowledge. Against this background, MED-HEALTH MED‐HEALTH has introduced a Master degree programme in Public Health Management in South Mediterranean HEIs in line with Bologna requirements and with a holistic and multidisciplinary approach. Complementary to the programme, a Public Health ePortal and a Regional Health Managament Network were set up as points of reference in the field and mechanisms to ensure sustainability of the project outcomes for the ultimate benefit of the region.The PCs targeted by MED-HEALTH (Palestine, Jordan and Tunisia) have significant rates of unemployment, more severely in women, structural weaknesses and lack of labour market efficiency. The region also shows a weak culture on meritocracy, with a clear need for continuous work in Higher Education for improving educational programmes. At the proposal stage, an overall lack of formal orientation to public health among workers, and in several cases, deficits in core public health skills were identified. A remarkably small number of public health workers have received a basic introduction to public health beyond their immediate job functions. Individuals with graduate public health degrees were rare and in high demand. In fact, public health studies at a Master degree level were fragmented or inexistent.Leadership and management skills were also absent in many local health departments. People were generally promoted from a clinical role to a managerial role without having necessarily the skills for the new role, nor managerial training or education of any sort. Although these skill deficits were not always identified in workforce surveys, they significantly impact the ability of public health agencies to provide effective services.In the light of the above, introducing study programmes with a range of skills and disciplines, including knowledge in strategic management, economics, negotiation and communication, helping target PCs improving the educational outcomes and the problem of skills mismatches and youth unemployment advised for a structured regional cooperation.Mutual recognition of qualifications and education systems, learning of foreign languages, and mobility of students, public health researchers and economic developers are some of the actions encouraged with the implemented activities.Thanks to the sustainability measures envisaged and implemented, it is expected that the new Master Programme and related resources will help improve in the next future the competitiveness of professionals in the PCs, contributing to better employment opportunities, closing gaps in the public health systems, improving societal perspectives and cooperation.