Under its current Dean, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Awad Barsheid, the Faculty of Arts has been taking steps in the path of development and progress, with establishing new departments and ambitious visions that make the Faculty a beacon of human sciences.
Indeed, the number of its faculty members and assistant faculty members exceed one hundred, and its students also exceed one thousand and four hundred. In addition to that there are more than forty administrators and service workers. In fact, it is one of the ancient Faculties at Hadhramaut University.
* First of all, have you given us a historical overview of the development process of the faculty since its establishment to today?
The Faculty of Arts was established in 1974 in Mukalla, which at that time was affiliated with Aden University, under the name of the Faculty of Sciences, Arts and Education, then it joined Hadhramout University in 1999, and became an independent faculty under the name of the Faculty of Arts in accordance with the HU president’s decision No. (119) of 2005, based on the council of ministers’ decision No. (161) of 2005.
* How do you evaluate various departments of the Faculties? And how do you view its outcomes ? Do they meet the needs of the labor market?
The faculty has nine departments: Arabic language, English language, Islamic studies, history, geography, philosophy, sociology, media, political science and libraries. Its students reach about 1,300 male and female students in the bachelor’s course, and about 100 students in the master’s course. The faculty members and assistant faculty members also reach100, among them are basic and contractual members, it also has 40 employees and administrators.
The Faculty’s policy goes in line with the vision, mission and objectives of the Faculty and university, and it seeks to provide disciplines and distinguished academic programs that serve the community and qualify students for the labor market at the local and regional levels. Thus, we seek , from time to time, to launch distinguished programs that keep pace with the needs of labour markets, And the most recent ones are the establishment of Political Science discipline as well as the Phd program in English Language, which its registration announcement beginning in the next month, if Allah wills.
* How have you viewed the Department of Journalism and Media since its establishment before ten years, and the Department of Political Science since its establishment before two years? And what are your future plans?
Both the departments of media and political science are among those distinguished and modern departments at the faculty. In fact, they relate to various aspects of life in Hadhramout, and the enrolment in both disciplines is increasing, and their need in the labor market is also increasing.
Since its establishment before ten years, we have started dividing the media department into media and radio &television divisions to meet the needs of the market, and to qualify students specialized in both fields after the availability of a qualified cadre, a training radio and studio to develop the competence of our graduates.
Our future plans are ambitious, but we usually encounter the lack of resources and government support that is almost non-existent, but we are moving mountains to improve the level of academic performance in the Faculty, and to graduate students capable of keeping pace with the labor market.
One of our plans is to restore the university radio, supervised by the department of media at the Faculty to train students daily, in order to cover at least Hadhramout Coast .
We also have a semi-integrated vision to launch the faculty of languages that will teach a number of languages, and the Department of English will be its basis as well as the Translation Unit, which plays an active role in translating certificates, documents, researches and research abstracts. This unit is recognized by both the Ministries of Higher Education and Foreign Affairs.
* Regarding modernizing the curricula, do you have a vision to keep pace with the modern age?
We seek to modernize the master’s and bachelor’s programs in accordance with the standards of the programs of Academic Development and Quality Center, and we have made headway in this direction, especially that our faculty is one of those few faculties that have a vice Dean of the quality affairs. In fact, we have moved forward at a steady pace in program specification and curriculum and course modernization.
* How do you view the educational process, especially after the Covid 19, do we adopt e-learning system?
The Faculty, like other university institutions, was affected by Covid 19, and delayed the study, but these obstacles were overcome by assisting the Presidency of the University and a number of institutions through providing the means of prevention and the support necessary for continuing the academic year 2019-2020.
E-learning system is an ambitious vision, and we hope to make headway in this direction, but there are financial and logistical obstacles that we seek to overcome.
* What is the relationship of the Faculty of Arts with the community? How do you evaluate community partnerships?
– Our Faculty is closely linked to the community through our graduates, seminars and lectures held by our professors, and through agreements we signed with a number of leading institutions in the community, such as Hadhramout TV Channel, Salamatak Radio, and Hadhramout Center for Historical Research, Documentation and Publication.
* Are you satisfied with the quality of education in the faculty? And have you achieved what you hope to?
Of course, our ambition is greater than what has been achieved, and we seek to open more doctoral programs in a number of disciplines, we also seek to open new specializations that meet the needs of labor market, and to provide the local and regional community with cadres capable of pushing development and modernization forward in order to build a better future for Hadhramout and the country.