Launch of the Electronic Payment Mechanism for 'Colloquium' Exam Fees

The Minister of Education and Higher Education Rima Karami and the Minister of Administrative Development Fadi Makki launched the electronic payment mechanism for Colloquium exam fees, within the path of modernizing public administration and enhancing digital transformation and consolidating the principle of transparency, during a meeting held in Karami's office in the presence of the Director General of Higher Education Dr. Mazen Al-Khatib and the technical work team in the two ministries.

On the occasion, Makki said: "I am pleased that we continue the path of digital transformation that began years ago, with submitting applications for Colloquium exams online, but this process was missing the final step, which was payment that was done by going personally to the bank or to cash payment and transfer companies. What we have done in coordination with the Ministry of Education and its work team and the Ministry of Finance is this step through which the link with an electronic payment gateway was secured, so the process became seamless from start to finish online via the ministry's page with all the information and payment via cards as well through Net Commerce company. This achievement is added to the achievements of digital transformation that are being done step by step, as we have also done it with the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economy and today with Education."

He continued: "As I learned from the Ministry of Education, about 3000 students apply for the Colloquium annually, and about twenty percent of them come from abroad. From here we can imagine the extent of the facilitation that the electronic fee payment system has brought, meaning we have added about 3000 satisfactions on the part of students through the smoothness of payment."

He concluded: "So we are proud of this work and also proud of the cooperation with the team of the Ministry of Education, which we found to be one of the most wonderful experienced teams in the field of digital transformation. I congratulate them because we will transfer this experience to other departments to benefit from the experience of this team. I also salute our team in Administrative Development that coordinated this process with the Ministry of Education team."

Then Karami spoke and said: "I would like to emphasize with Minister Makki the importance of this step and what it represents. I am interested in focusing on two very important points for us in the Ministry of Education: first, the close cooperation with the Ministry of Administrative Development in many matters, because digital transformation for us is an aspect of improving governance, and this is a point we desperately need to reach this satisfaction because we are a service ministry that serves teachers, principals, and students in universities, whether they are in the course of study or graduates."

She continued: "In the Ministry of Education, we have been trying for a while to digitize, but this process was linked to projects, and therefore we must identify our priorities quickly as we did in this step today, and work strategically to build the foundation. I am very proud of the work team we formed led by Professor Imad Jbouri and in cooperation with the work team that was already present in the ministry, which made a lot of effort to cooperate with each other and add to what existed before, so that we reach the time when the ministry has invested in digitization to improve its governance and organize its affairs and services."

She said: "It is a small step today but its impact is great for those whom we are obliged to serve, and thus the step itself becomes large because it lays the foundations for us to launch together in the concerned ministries towards digital transformation, which has become very essential in the education sector."

She concluded: "I would like to thank all who contributed to bringing us to this stage, especially the team of Minister Makki in the Ministry of Administrative Development and the work team that was working with the Director General of Higher Education Dr. Mazen Al-Khatib, as the first launch of the Colloquium in digitization was until this day. I congratulate you all and look forward to further steps, God willing."

For his part, Al-Khatib spoke and thanked the two ministers for "the efforts and support until we reached this electronic payment," considering it "the final link of an effort made in the General Directorate of Higher Education. The first step was submitting equivalencies online, then we moved to making applications for the Colloquium available online, and the second stage culminated in electronic payment. We hope in the next stage to generalize the electronic payment experience to private universities, which submit many requests to us for licensing programs, commencing teaching, recognition, and renewal of recognition, especially since the law specifies a financial fee for each program. We hope to move to a near stage where we establish an electronic gateway between us and the universities where electronic payment includes everything related to students entirely online and completed with the university files."

He concluded: "I take this opportunity to extend thanks to all who contributed with us in making this process a success, and I thank the ministry work team, namely Professor Imad Jbouri and Dr. Layal Al-Rabie, who had the first ideas and followed up from the beginning the ideas of using online in equivalencies and in the Colloquium with the ministry team, and today culminated with a unique effort in the minister's office, and God willing, forward to steps that ease the citizen's burden to progress with full e-governance."