In the MENA region the unemployment rate among HE graduates is among the highest in the world as a direct result of the mismatch between education outcomes and expectations of the labor market. With the fast evolving pattern of the market-needs as a result of revolutionary technologies such as Industry 4.0, AI, robotics and machine learning, a new shift in human resource requirements map is at hand leaving HEIs with an inevitable time-pressing challenge to adjust the learning processes to yield particular competencies that expand way beyond the technical knowledge that has been the focus for many decades. It is thus the aim of this project is to develop a generation of globally-exposed HE graduates, equipped with essential character, social and cognitive skills blended with academic competencies, with a higher degree of readiness for the fast-evolving community and job market, and who are capable to integrate effectively in multi-cultural, diverse eco-system. Hence, Competence-tailored Student Journey Map that blends academic and academic-complimentary competencies during the student lifetime is introduced. A pilot set of competence-tailored 35 short- and 10 long-term extracurricular activities & “quests” are designed and programmed into the LMS & SIS of partner HEIs, along with 35 courses (120 ECTS) in Engineering and ICT restructured to align with SDGs in competency-based format, targeting the full envisioned picture of the future “Global Citizen” possessing competencies that were clearly identified via an exhaustive gap analysis developed at the beginning of the project. A target of at least 60 students at each of the 7 partner HEIs in Egypt, Jordan and Algeria is planned. Student-Stakeholders Engagement Portal, where employers and students share their profiles and where both have open arena to engage in internships, summer jobs, capacity building programs is essential in the proposed integrative (academic/extracurricular/industry engagement) approach.

Towards the end of the last century the expression of 'personalised medicine' has come to life. This simply means the right drug for the right patient with the right dose. We all now understand that the difference between any individuals regarding their DNA sequence is only about 0.1%. In spite of the fact that this is really a tiny figure, it is enough to lead to important effects on disease susceptibility and progression. Although the healthcare community in Egypt and Lebanon has identified the need for academic educational programs on pharmacogenomics and personalised medicine, yet there has been no appreciable effort done in either country so far to fill this gap. Even the awareness of such programs is low. There exists no higher educational degree for pharmacogenomics in Egypt or Lebanon. Thus, there is a pressing need to implement this personalized medicine educational program in core training of pharmacists and physicians in the region. Moreover, there are very few programs in Egypt or Lebanon that make use of online education using IT and e-laboratories. This kind of smart learning programs facilitate the education process and make it suitable for the greatest numbers of target groups outside the Egyptian and Lebanese borders. Identification of the proper drugs for specific patient phenotypes will heighten the drug efficacy, lessen expected adverse outcomes, increase cost effectiveness and elevate public confidence in marketed pharmaceuticals. According to the world bank records (2018), Egypt is a lower middle income country with gross domestic product of 1.201 trillion dollars, whereas Lebanon is considered an upper middle income country. Therefore, the support from the CBHE is essential as the design and implementation of this diploma/master program will require a huge fund which is unavailable in Egypt and Lebanon, being developed countries.