The Gulf University of Science and Technology (GUST) cooperated with the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in many projects, including the DiSTO project and the establishment of the DiSTO-Kuwait branch with a group of GUST professors. There was also research cooperation. With Gulf University for Science and Technology professor Dr. Rania Al-Naqeeb to explore how democratic citizenship is shaped through education in Kuwait.
The collaboration began with Professor from LSE, Dr. Ellen Helsper, who is leading the global project “From Digital Skills to Tangible Outcomes” (DiSTO). The project aimed to develop and improve global measures of people’s digital skills and engagement, as well as the types of outcomes they derive from them. The project has been implemented in many countries around the world and its parallels have also been integrated into projects such as the Global Internet Project, ITU, Global Kids Online, UK Nominet Trust project, Benessere Digitale (Italy) and others.
DiSTO-Kuwait, the local branch of Professor Hillspur’s project, was managed by a team from Gulf University of Science and Technology, which included Dr. Fahad Al-Sumait, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr. Al-Baraa Al-Tura, postdoctoral researcher in the Mass Communication and Media Department, Dr. Gabriel Latif, Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication and Media, MCM, Nouf Al-Saif, is a teaching assistant and part-time teacher at MCM. At the same time, the GUST team engaged in a partnership with World of Opinions Public Relations Consultations Company in Kuwait, under supervision of Dr. Samir Abu Rumman, which is one of the leading surveying companies in the country and which helped in training the interviewers and planning the field work. Finally, GUST also on-boarded nearly 20 volunteers from the GUST student community and beyond to receive data collection training and assist with the national level data collection which was planned in February and March 2020. This not only helped in collecting accurate information, but also helped in preparing the next generation of potential researchers to engage with and address pressing social concerns through the application of quality methodologies.
Professor Helsper spent a week in Kuwait holding workshops and training sessions, meeting with key stakeholders, and coordinating activities with the DiSTO-Kuwait team. Among the organizations that met to discuss the project and assess the state of ICT in Kuwait were the Communications and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA), the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), Zain Telecommunications Company, the GUST Center for Education, and faculty members from the Department of Science. Information at the College of Computer Science and Engineering at Kuwait University.
Also, during her visit, Professor Helsper gave a lecture at Gulf University of Science and Technology on global evidence of social and digital inequality collected through DiSTO projects. She introduced the DiSTO project and explained how it helps develop and improve measures and models of individuals’ digital skills, digital engagement and ICT outcomes. The aim of the lecture was to examine the most effective interventions in preparing everyone for a digital future.
Professor Helsper has extensive experience in the world of digital inequalities and methodologies in media and communications research, and is known for her work on the UK Kids Online project, her consultancy work with OSSWatch (University of Oxford), Ofcom, BBC and Plan International, and her role as an Exploratory Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII, University of Oxford) manages and analyzes the biennial Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS) and is the UK partner in the World Wide Web project. She graduated in media psychology from Utrecht University and has published her articles in journals such as the International Journal of Communication, the European Journal of Communication, and the Journal of Children and Media.
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The second major collaboration project between the two universities in Kuwait was led by Dr. Rania Al-Naqeeb, Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Gulf University of Science and Technology, who is collaborating with Dr. Sam Mejias, Research Fellow at the London School of Economics on a research study entitled “Empowering Democratic Citizenship through… Education: Exploring rights-based approaches to educational policy making in Kuwait. This study is funded by a grant from the LSE Middle East Centre. The study used both multidisciplinary and multimethod approaches that combine desk research and discourse analysis with qualitative and quantitative data collection. The research relied on methodological methods of critical discourse analysis, content analysis, and ethnographic social construction.
Founded in 1895, the London School of Economics is a public research university that joined the University of London in 1900, and established its first-class courses with the support and backing of the university in 1901. Today, it is ranked first in the world as a thought leader in management, ranked second in the world in the social sciences and management According to the latest QS World University Rankings. It is also currently ranked number one in the UK for research in Business and Management Studies.
