PSUT revels in ‘year of achievements’

AMMAN — President of Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) Mashhoor Al Refai, described 2020 as “the year of great achievements”, affirming that “strong determination can turn adversity into opportunities, and that the Coronavirus pandemic, with all its consequences and hardships, has only created additional motives for the PSUT family to achieve even greater distinction and excel in all forums”, according to a PSUT statement.

During a press conference Refai said that “this exceptional success comes” in the context of the aspirations and directives of HRH Princess Sumaya, chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, and her relentless pursuit of bringing the university into the spotlight of global competitiveness.

Refai said that PSUT’s obtaining all five stars in the full range of axes in the QS Stars Rating marks an important stage in the university’s progress, as it is the first Jordanian university to obtain this rating without going through its gradual stages, from three stars to five, and the first in the region to obtain five stars for each of the evaluation axes, according to the statement

The PSUT president indicated that, when the university obtained the AACSB, it became the first in the history of Jordanian universities and one of 2 per cent of the world’s universities outside the US to obtain this accreditation. With this, all of the university’s schools now hold US accreditation.

In terms of scientific research, Refai pointed out that PSUT achieved first place in the country, for the third consecutive year, in the QS Arab Region University Rankings 2021, and was also ranked 15th among Arab universities in the criterion of the ratio of published research papers to faculty members. Notably, PSUT has implemented a number of legislations in order to raise the level of scientific research and motivate researchers, and that keep pace with global trends, such as supporting attendance at international conferences, granting sabbatical leave, granting scholarships to postgraduate students, and recruiting distinguished faculty members and students. 

As a result of these steps, two researchers from PSUT were named among the best 2 per cent of researchers worldwide, according to the updated database of scientific researchers for standardised citation metrics prepared by Stanford University and the international publishing house, Elsevier.

In terms of prizes, Refai said that PSUT emerged as world champion in the annual IEEEXtreme programming competition, outperforming some of the most prestigious international universities, such as MIT, the University of Illinois, and McGill University in Canada. 

It also snatched the second and third prizes from the Crown Prince Award for Best Government Service Application, as well as leading a Jordanian team to finish first in the world in the “Huawei” ICT Skills Competition. Furthermore, the University achieved first place in the 9th International “Hackathon” Competition, and took gold and bronze medals in the Arab Programming Competition for the Middle East and Africa.

Continuing the list of prizes, the university president added that PSUT’s Debating Club team emerged as champion of the 2nd Asian Arabic Language Debating Championship, which was held in the Malaysian capital. 

The University won first place in the “Independence FIFA 2020” online gaming tournament. A team from PSUT was crowned with three gold medals at Jordan’s 9th Jujitsu Championship. 

PSUT qualified for the regional round of the Global Hult Prize 2020, while the university’s branch of the Association of Energy Engineers  won two international awards, and the University ranked first in the Jordanian Collegiate Programming Contest.

With regard to international and local partnerships, Refai said that PSUT had established an academy specialising in the fields of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and cloud computing, in cooperation with Huawei International Jordan Branch. 

Furthermore, in partnership with another eleven private Jordanian universities, the Centre of Excellence for Library Services at Private Jordanian Universities was established. The university also set up an incubator for innovation and digital solutions in cooperation with Pio-Tech.

In the academic field, and in line with contemporary market needs, the PSUT president stated that the university introduced a bachelor’s programme in cybersecurity for the academic year 2020/2021.

PSUT saw the graduation of its first PhD student and his appointment as a member of faculty, in accordance with its strategy to support outstanding students.