On April 27, KAIST signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Egypt’s National Training Academy (NTA) during a virtual signing ceremony. The MoU lays a foundation for establishing KAIST Egypt, an educational institution modeled after KAIST, and includes conducting a preliminary feasibility study.
The project is also a step towards achieving “the 10-10-10 Dream”, one of KAIST’s future aspirations that was first mentioned by former President Sung-Chul Shin during the 50th Innoversary Ceremony in February. As a part of this plan, KAIST aims to operate 10 campuses overseas.
Founded in 2017, the NTA is a human resources development center that has the goal of nurturing competent professionals among Egyptian youth. In the past year, the NTA has signed MoUs with two Korean organizations, National Human Resources Development Institute (NHI) and Korea Institute of Human Resources Development in Science and Technology (KIRD), featuring the plans for the development of human resources in the public sector and in the science and technology sector, respectively.
The day before the signing ceremony with KAIST, NTA Executive Director Rascha Ragheb met with Jin-wook Hong, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Egypt, to celebrate the signing of the MoU. Executive Director Ragheb expressed her hope to use KAIST’s experience as a blueprint and to successfully model the case of KAIST, Korea’s powerhouse behind technological innovations, in Egypt through signing the MoU. Both Hong and Ragheb agreed that this project will be a great opportunity for Egypt’s human capital growth and will eventually contribute to the country’s “sustainable and equitable economic growth”.