The Message of the Vice-President for Community Service and Environment Development Affairs

The university does not only provide traditional services such as education and academic research, but its role goes today beyond these borders to include interaction with the surrounding environment.

Devising the Arabic word Jamaa which means University as a name for such an institution signifies the richness and the eloquence of this language. The word University in Arabic means the place that gathers all educational, research, service, cultural, and intellectual activities. In addition, the university is the destination of scientists, intellectuals, researchers, and students. Moreover, it collects the heritage of the nation as well as the culture. All previously mentioned gave the university a unique reputation and a leading role in the modern societies in which there is no civilized society without an effective role for its university.

Without complete activation of the university role in developing society, this role will be so limited. Hence, the importance of the Community Service and Environment Development Sector emerges as the third cornerstone of the university, along with both education and research, to give the university its hallmark among other traditional educational institutions.

As one of the biggest four universities in Egypt, Mansoura University paid great attention to community service and environment development since the creation of the post of the University Vice-President for Community Service and Environment Development Affairs in 1993.

The Community Service and Environment Development Sector has achieved a lot since then by a number of former distinguished University Vice-Presidents; and we, hopefully, would like to continue these achievements and to set new visions and missions that cope up with the recent changes regionally and internationally and with Egypt after the great January 25^th Revolution. In all countries the university leads development particularly in the developing countries. So, the main aim of the sector is to make the university an active and an indispensable member of the society.

Aims of the Community Service and Environment Development Affairs Sector:

·  Increasing the aspects of connection between the university and industry, supporting partnership with the business and private sectors, working on overcoming all obstacles against such partnership in previous years, following up social institutes and creating an updated database for them, identifying social needs and studying the possibility for partnership and determining the level of such partnership in the light of the available potentials of the university through indentifying the problems of the society, setting suitable scientific plans to face such problems, and studying the problems of production and the role of the applied research in solving these problems.

·  Participating in increasing awareness among the members of the society, keeping the environment safe throughout revising the assessment of the environmental effect to provide scientific and technical consultations for new projects.

·  Studying and proposing general policies to organize social and environmental conferences as well as scientific symposia that serve the surrounding environment directly, encouraging medical, scientific and educational convoys to move towards local units, villages and schools, increasing and supporting such convoys as much as possible.

·  Developing a mechanism to encourage staff members, administrative staff and students to participate effectively in the volunteering service for the university, the society and the surrounding environment in Dakahlia governorate and in the neighboring governorates in the Delta and this is due to the idea that serving the community and keeping the environment safe is an integral part of the message of the university professors that should be sustained.

·  Developing the special units due to their importance in the community service and in assisting the university to fulfill its message throughout:

§  Establishing updated database for special units in the university and various faculties and follow up their activities.

§  Activating the unified regulation of these units and modifying it to be more flexible and effective. Also, introducing new administrative leaderships to get the maximum benefits from the special units.

§  Developing the infrastructure of the special units throughout providing these units with the needed equipment and increasing competition in providing distinguished societal services.

§  Developing the skills of these special units’ staff and enhancing the efficiency of administering and using available resources, in addition to helping this staff absorb the new scientific issues and applications.

§  Activating the concept of the Productive University that provides services and products and marketing them throughout multiple channels of advertising. Also, announcing the societal services and products provided by the university and faculties throughout various methods of marketing.

University Vice-President for

     Community Service and Environment

Development Affairs

Mahmoud Mohamed Almeleigy