NU Biotech Students Receive Practical Training at Semi-industrial Units

As part of NU's vision of preparing students for research and entrepreneurial challenges in the current world, the NU School of Biotechnology has followed an unconventional method of teaching practical courses to its undergraduate students.
 
Instead of the usual training received in labs specifically and artificially designed for pedagogical purposes, junior Biotechnology students are taking their practical courses in semi-industrial units where real-life applications of the concepts they learned are already being turned into viable products that address the current medical, agricultural, and environmental needs of the Egyptian market.
 
In the Plant Tissue Culture course, students are taught lectures by Dr. Ashraf Bakry, one of the pioneers in environmental biotechnology and a recipient of the Egyptian State Encouragement Award. After their lectures, they are taken to the semi-industrial units where they apply the concepts they learned and see how it becomes a product that immediately impacts national exports and the national GDP. 
 
Traditional pedagogical methods enable the students to learn the academic concepts before graduation and to learn real-life applications only after graduation. However, the system that NU School of Biotechnology follows shows these applications to the students in real-time by having them participate directly in such real-life projects.