Biography
Professor Wafaa Abdelkhalek Tharwat is a Professor of Media and Mass Communication at the College of Mass Communication, Umm Al Quwain University.
Professor Wafaa Tharwat is a distinguished academic and media professional. She currently serves as a Professor of Media and mass Communication at the College of Mass Communication, Umm Al Quwain University, United Arab Emirates. She previously held several leadership positions at Minia University in Egypt, including Head of the Departments of mass communication and Educational Media, and Director of the Media Research, Production, and Training Center.
She has contributed extensively to academic research, with numerous peer-reviewed publications in internationally recognized journals indexed in the Scopus.
She has also participated in various international scientific conferences and authored several books and academic works in the fields of digital media, crisis communication, media production, news making, public relations, and international communication. She has supervised more than 40 master’s and doctoral theses in mass communication, public relations, and crisis communication.
She began her media career as a radio and television presenter at the Egyptian Broadcasting Corporation. She is also an accredited international trainer and evaluator, having designed and led numerous training courses and workshops in digital media and mass communication. Her applied academic involvement extends to community service, including scriptwriting and directing several awareness-raising and cultural documentary films.
She is an active member of the international accreditation team for the College of Mass Communication, which earned six-year accreditation from AQAS (Agency for Quality Assurance through Accreditation of Study Programs), Germany. Additionally, she played a key role in the development of the master’s program in digital communication at Umm Al Quwain University.
She has significant expertise in curriculum development and academic program design in line with the standards of the UAE Commission for Academic Accreditation. She is also a founding member of the "Communication and Crisis" program at the College of Mass Communication—the first of its kind among Arab universities and in the Middle East region.
Professor Tharwat holds a PhD in Media and Communication from Minia University (2001). She was promoted to the rank of Full Professor in Egypt in 2019 and in the UAE in 2021. She has taught and developed course materials for over fifty undergraduate and postgraduate courses in media and communication studies.
She has also held numerous academic and administrative roles at Minia University, including membership in the Board of the Faculty and Leadership Development Center, the Media Services Center, and the University’s Cultural Advisory Committee. She served as a member of the Media Sector Committee at the Supreme Council of Universities and has been involved in national initiatives such as the National Council for Women and the boards of several Egyptian newspapers.
Professor Tharwat is widely recognized for her ability to bridge theory and practice in media and communication, and she continues to make impactful contributions to the academic and media landscape across the Arab world.