Master’s Degree in Competitiveness and Development Economics

The master program of Competitiveness and Development Economics, from now on abbreviated as (CDE), at Al-Quds University (AQU) is designed to meet the current and future market needs of the Palestinian public and private sectors, by having highly qualified and promising experts who can develop efficient and practical strategies, that can make our public and private institutions more competent, which is necessary for economic and social development in Palestine. In particular, the concepts of microeconomics of competitiveness and macroeconomics of competitiveness are still very new not only in Palestine but also in the region. However, it is anticipated that our graduates will be familiar enough to theoretically and practically deal with the following question: What conditions enable Palestinian local businesses to innovate and grow?
Traditional economic theories fail to capture many of the key forces at work in today’s global economy. Competitiveness can be the only way to achieve sustainable job growth, improve wages, raise the standard of living and well-being.. Clear economic strategies of competitiveness that engage all stakeholders, boost innovation and ultimately improve productivity are especially critical in times of austerity or economic distress as well as economic development. Consequently, a market study was compiled with the result that Palestinian universities are still teaching traditional programs of economics and business disciplines, so that the CDE provides a new approach of teaching (Teaching by Case Studies) with particular concentration on competitiveness. Therefore, AQU decided to incorporate more practical case studies into the university study similar to the approach followed by several higher education institutions in the USA and Europe. The results also showed a keen interest in the public and private sector institutions in this new style of study.
Consequently, in 2018, AQU has signed an Agreement with the Institute of Competitiveness and Strategy at Harvard Business School for academic and research cooperation. However, faculty members at AQU took part in two Faculty Workshops, Economics of Competitiveness, Harvard Business School, December 2017 and December 2018.   As a result, AQU has already established the Al-Quds Institute for Competitiveness and Strategy, which offers a promising and pioneer master program of “Competitiveness and Development Economics. ”
To meet the overall objective of the master program of CDE, 36 credits in the CDE master program with a strong emphasis on bringing methods of modern economic analysis to the economics of competitiveness, economic development theory, and economic strategy will be included. In particular, some companies perform better than others and keep innovating, so they grow and thrive over time. Up to now, many leaders and managers fail to grasp the fundamental concepts that shape competitive strategy for their institutors
On the other hand, the responsibility of quality assurance issues at Al-Quds University is in the hand of the Quality Assurance Unit (QAU). This department is responsible f

• the ongoing review of academic processes and quality assurance, i. e., in all faculties, libraries, labs, etc.,
• the ongoing review of administration and financial processes in order to reach an acceptable level of international standards,
• monitoring all ongoing academic program outcomes through communicating with the ALUMNI unit,
• cooperation with the Students’ Affairs Department for reviewing the students’ needs from their view.

All academic programs at Al-Quds University have to be submitted to the national accreditation authority, from now on abbreviated as (AQAC) in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. In order to ensure a high international academic standard, the evaluation team consists of professors not only from Palestine but also from international universities. Moreover, the master program of CDE is established under an agreement for cooperation between the AQU  and Harvard University, which was signed by the parties in 2018. It also aspires to collaborate with concerned sectors to promote competitiveness and achieve sustainable economic and social development in Palestine.
The performance of all AQU full- and part-time professors are evaluated by the students at the end of each semester and yearly by the steering committee of Al-Quds Institute for competitiveness and strategy.