Experience in An-Najah National University, Israel by Rami

Generally, what is An-Najah National University like?

It is a good university based in Nablus (The West Bank, Palestine). It consists of two main campuses, the Old one and the New one. The new one is known for being more of a scientific kind of campus since it embodies the scientific faculties. The humanitarian/financial ones are in the old campus. They are both about 7-9 minutes away by public transportation.

What are the facilities like?

The facilities of the university are, unfortunately, primitive. A lot of funding flows into the university administration but they don't seem to be doing anything about improving their facilities. Even the toilets all around the university are, excuse me for using this word, disgusting. They never really take care of anything, except for cleaning the public squares (Which are about 3-4 squares) but that's it. Anything related to cleaning is ignored. The classrooms are quite Okay. Judging by my experience by studying abroad, they're fine.

What are the tutors like?

As for the tutors in my English Language & Literature department, they're mostly (or used to be a year or two ago) really old. Now this could be good and nice to have someone with a lot of experience to teach you a specific matter, but the problem is that, after all that age, they don't feel like actually teaching anymore, they just lecture you as if they were reading a newspaper and leave. Really old and yet don't care about keeping pace with development. Some of them rather avoid talking about matters that are considered sensitive by the society like sexuality, even though we study ENGLISH literature, means whoever teaches us or studies it should be ready to face such topics. Recently, the old tutors are being slowly replaced by a newer generation (mostly ones who come back after a HESPAL scholarship from the UK), so that's good, because they come back new, fresh, and with new ideas.

Are the lessons easy in An-Najah National University?

Mostly, not.

Does the University organise activities? If so, what are they like?

Not very. They do sometimes, literature/poetic activities usually. They once held a "Najah Got Talent" competition a few years ago, but that's it.

Do you think there is a good quality of teaching?

Rarely found.

Are there any stories you can share?

I'm not going to lie to you, NNU is not so bad, but the administration of the university makes it terrible. They are very slow, there is no connection between any other staff member. Every office is independent from the other, they don't communicate, which makes it much harder for the student to proceed with any papers or stuff to do. They are really, really, slow and primitive when it comes to organizing stuff or even signing a single paper. A story I had just recently when I came back from Poland after a year of Erasmus, they refused to accept my grades from the University of Warsaw, in spite the existence of an already signed agreement between NNU, UW, and I. I had to report them to the Erasmus office in Ramallah, Palestine, in order to accept my grades, which actually happened, but such a thing should have never required the involvement of the Erasmus office in first place. They lack knowledge of ECTs and such.