A survey distributed to health academics from Lebanese & Syrian partner universities indicate:1- Lack of digital skills among health educators combined with limited use of ICT in HE especially in Syrian universities with no digital plateform in all partner universities,2-Limited use of innovative T&L methods with widespread use of old T&L approaches with no or limited use of modern pedagogic methods especially in theoritical classes,3- limited online & blended learning in health disciplines.The logical consequances of those facts are:1- future doctors & pharmacist & health professionals are digital illterate,2. low level of engagement & understanding of taught materials & declining in attendence rates among health as lectures become boring & not interactive.3. Disadvantages groups such as refugees & Internally Displaced People (IDPs) are not following programs in health disciplines which results in important & most vulnerable segment of the society prevented from health education(HE) especially that other initiatives (such as Kiron) do no offer oppurtunities to follow programs in health disciplines. DIGIFIT aims at promoting excellence, creative & innovative digital T&L approaches through advanced ICT solutions to improve quality of HE to prepare a well-qualified graduates who are able to adapt to changing healthcare environment, meet societal expectations & sustain healthy environment in LB & SY.The main output of DIGIFIT is the establishment of 2 centers for innovative T&L in HE(one in LB & one in SY) that will serve as hubs for training health educators on novel digital skills & interactive T&L methods in addition to developing e-modules that exploit digital revolution. Those centers will enhance regional collaboration through sharing e-materials, teaching experience & best T&L practices. They will develop e-materials that stimulate critical thinking & imagination & make concepts easier to teach & understand achieving greater student focus & higher retention.

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.

The MED2IaH initiative stems from the necessity of cover an important aspect of internationalization in Mediterranean countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan) higher education system that has not been tackled adequately until now – Internationalisation at Home (IaH). Within EU funded projects, internationalization at large has been covered by different projects embracing European concepts like Bologna system, ECTS, internationalization of curriculum and cross-cultural issues within a multi-diversity paradigm. Though IaH is a relatively recent concept, it has already been embraced widely, particularly in northern and western Europe. IaH aims to bring internationalisation to all students through the home curriculum. It is therefore primarily about teaching and learning, which implies that lecturers are increasingly becoming prominent players in internationalisation. After all, they are the ones who create learning environments with international and intercultural dimensions. The project thus attempts to develop University Strategy on IoHE and Research and individual Action plans for IaH in 12 PCHEIs after exploring the different EU models available for IaH. A common terminology around the concept of IaH will be needed as well. As a way to reinforce IaH strategies partners will establish specific guidelines and protocols for foreign student services - including those related to safety and security for instance. Other mechanisms like social integration schemes will be developed as well. A particular activity to enhance IaH will be the organisation and delivery of virtual webinars in PC HEI. The project will support the development of a strategic framework for HE and IaH specificially and the enhancement of structured regulations and procedures that facilitate incoming exchange mobilities, creation of support schemes for foreign students coming to PC HEIs and complementing other measures that have been previously put in place through other CBHE projects.