Home About The Standard Membership Events Consulting Founding membership

Founding cohort now forming

The region’s first professional body for student governments and student leaders.

The network that connects them, and the standard that raises them.

Founding membership The Standard
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universities across the Middle East and North Africa

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students inside them

Why Pact exists

Nothing connects
student life
in this region.

A thousand campuses, each working alone. Pact is the connective tissue that was never built here, running on three levels at once.

01 Student government
to student government

Your counterpart on another campus, who already solved the problem you’re facing this month.

02 Student
to student

Events, access and opportunity that reach students on every member campus, not only their own.

03 Institution
to institution

Universities building together what none of them could build alone.

The network

Fifteen countries,
one record.

    How the network runs

    Every connection
    made on purpose.

    01National and regional

    Close to home when you need local context, across the region when you need a fresh answer.

    02All year, not two days

    The network keeps working between events, not just while a conference is on.

    03Connected by Pact

    You say what you need. Pact finds the person who has already done it and introduces you.

    04Held by the Standard

    One Standard behind every connection, so good practice travels from campus to campus.

    Each organisation starts again, every year, from nothing.

    Why the student government

    40

    01

    clubs and societies on a typical campus, each one excellent at what it does and serving the students who find it.

    student government, standing behind all of them. Strengthen it, and everything it supports gets stronger.

    Where to go next

    01

    The Standard

    Four families · twelve dimensions
    02

    Membership

    $799 founding rate
    03

    Events

    Eight, national and regional
    04

    Consulting

    Eleven domains

    A region where student life compounds instead of resetting.

    Founding cohort

    Seven institutions will be first.

    Founding members hold the $799 rate for two years and are named as founding institutions for as long as Pact exists.

    Apply for founding membership

    About

    Raise the practice.

    Develop the people.

    Widen the reach.

    So what students build in one year, on one campus, no longer stops there.

    The organisation

    One member,
    a whole campus.

    The student government joins. Everyone around it benefits.

    UniversitiesStudent bodies Student governments Studentleaders

    Why it was founded

    The problem was obvious from inside, and invisible from anywhere else.

    “Four years of leading teams and managing budgets ended at graduation with nothing to show for it.”

    What they saw

    Problems already solved on another campus, in another country, by someone there was no way to reach.

    What it cost

    Every new team spent months relearning what the last one knew. Opportunity stopped at the campus gate.

    What they built

    Pact, starting from a map of 150 institutions across fifteen countries.

    The founders

    Both of them
    were student
    leaders first.

    Ahmed Abuarab

    Ahmed Abuarab

    Co-founder

    Served in student government at the American University in Cairo from his first year, working on governance, the academic and financial issues students face, and elections. He won the university’s Student Government Cup, and still mentors the leaders who came after him.

    LinkedIn
    Taha Ouda

    Taha Ouda

    Co-founder

    Served in student government at the American University in Cairo, where he convened the region’s first student government summit. He has since worked with student leaders at fifteen institutions across the region, building the relationships Pact now runs on.

    LinkedIn

    Contact

    Pact contacts institutions directly. You are welcome to go first.

    hello@pactmena.com

    Write to us, or send a message and it reaches the right person.

    Send a message

    Pact MENA

    The Student Governments Best Practices Standard.

    What good student governance looks like in this region, written as practices a team can act on.

    Cover of the Student Governments Best Practices Standard, first edition

    What it is

    A student government must build everything, then hand it over within the year.

    Month 1Win the mandate

    Open elections that the losing side accepts.

    Months 2 to 4Set the rules

    Governing documents that say who decides what.

    Months 5 to 10Run it well

    Money handled with discipline, services delivered.

    Months 11 to 12Hand it all over

    Everything built passes to people who start tomorrow.

    What sets the best apart is practice, not resources.

    The Standard draws on
    • Corporate governance
    • Nonprofit governance
    • University governance
    • People who have led these organisations

    The architecture

    Four families of practice. Twelve dimensions.

    Each family addresses a distinct question about the health of a student government. Select any dimension to see how the Standard is written.

    One of seventy-two practices, reproduced as it appears in the document.

    Distribution

    The Standard is issued to member institutions.

    First edition, 2026. Thirty-nine pages, four families, twelve dimensions, seventy-two practices. It is what Pact’s self-assessment, benchmarking and consulting all run on. Held by the student government rather than by an officer, and reissued with each new edition.

    Membership

    Membership

    Everything your team needs to run a better year.

    Know where you stand, get support to close the gaps, and prove the progress to your university.

    Apply for founding membership

    What membership is

    One year, three steps.

    Assess

    See where you stand. A self-assessment that scores how you run, shows the gaps, and compares you with peers.

    Improve

    Close the gaps. A plan built around what the assessment found, with regular check-ins across the year to keep it moving.

    Prove

    Show the progress. An Annual Impact Report on what changed, and where you now sit against the region.

    What is included

    What you get.

    Your year in Pact

    The membership is a year, not a login.

    Twelve months, starting the day you join.

    1 / 8

    For the university.

    01Standing

    Membership shows the university takes student leadership seriously, at a regional and global level. Students and families notice.

    02Continuity

    What students build stops leaving with each graduating team. Projects and relationships carry across every change of leadership.

    03Evidence

    An annual report on what student leadership achieved, and where the university sits in the region.

    04Reach for students

    Events, access and opportunity beyond one campus, for the whole student body.

    Founding membership

    Be one of the first seven.

    Seven founding places, across the region.

    • Your rate, held$799 a year for your first two years.
    • Named permanentlyRecognised as a founding institution for as long as Pact exists.
    • Everyone includedEvery officer and advisor, with no limit on seats.

    Founding rate

    $799

    A year, for the whole student government. $999 for institutions joining later.

    Apply for founding membership

    Events

    Eight ways the region ends up in the same room.

    Two flagship conferences for student governments.
    Six regional events for every student.

    2

    For the team

    Where student governments learn and set the bar together.

    01

    National Conference

    One day, one country, on a member campus.

    Who attends

    Full student government teams and their advisors.

    You leave with

    Every officer trained in their own role by the Pact Experts Network, your standing against every student government in the country, and the counterparts you will call for the rest of your term.

    The full programme
    • Seven role-based tracks, led by the Pact Experts Network of industry professionals and the region’s former student leaders
    • Peer exchange with your counterparts from across the country
    • The National Benchmark Reveal, delivered to every student government in a sealed letter
    • The Advisor Forum, a full-day programme for student life leadership
    Egypt and UAE coming soon
    02

    Regional Summit

    Three days, on a member campus, with delegations from across the region.

    Who attends

    Student government delegations from every member country.

    You leave with

    A year’s targets set with the whole region, initiatives signed with student governments across borders, masterclasses from the Pact Experts Network, and a team that returns knowing how the region’s best serve their students.

    The full programme
    • The region sets the year’s targets together
    • Cross-border initiatives agreed and signed in the room
    • The Presidents’ Masterclass, led by the Pact Experts Network, while teams build their year’s plan
    • Panels with the leaders shaping student life across the region
    • The Annual Awards, recognising the region’s best
    Across the region

    The Pact
    Experts Network

    Every track at the National Conference and every masterclass at the Regional Summit is led by the Pact Experts Network, made up of industry professionals and the region’s former student leaders.

    • Elections
    • Governance
    • Finance
    • Academic affairs
    • Mediation
    • Events & programming
    • Marketing & communications
    • Leadership & teams
    6

    For every student

    Where students compete, perform and build beyond their campus.

    03Youth Forum

    A day of keynotes and workshops, with student-run brands showcased alongside. Open to every student.

    Regional · annual
    04Cultural Festival

    A celebration of the region’s cultures through performance, music, food and art.

    Regional · annual
    05Regional Film Festival

    Student film seen by the whole region, not one campus.

    Regional · annual
    06Entrepreneurial Gathering

    Student founders in front of the operators and investors they need to meet.

    Regional · annual
    07Academic Forum

    Student research presented across universities, with faculty response.

    Regional · annual
    08Regional Competitions

    Debate, case, design and more, judged across every member campus.

    Through the year

    Attending

    Open to every institution. Even more for members.

    Every attendee

    • The full programme, every session and every speaker
    • The same room as every other student government
    • Everything the event is built to give

    Members also get

    • A reduced rate on every event
    • Arrive prepared, with your team’s priorities already known
    • The year around it: the plan, the check-ins and the network
    See membership

    Coming soon

    Be in the room for the first National Conference.

    The first time a country’s student governments meet in one room, starting in Egypt and the UAE. Register your interest to be the first to hear the date, the host and how to bring your team.

    Register interest

    Consulting

    When the problem needs building, not answering.

    Hands-on work, from a rebuilt constitution to a resolved crisis.

    Request a discovery call

    Where Pact works

    Eleven domains,
    each tied to
    the Standard.

    Filter by the Standard’s four families of practice.

    Every problem is different. So is every engagement.

    How an engagement runs

    The same seven steps, every time.

    01Discovery call

    Understanding the problem together.

    02Proposal

    The approach, timeline and fee.

    03Agreement

    Scope and terms, signed.

    04Kickoff

    Roles, rhythm and plan set.

    05The work

    Built with your team.

    06Handover

    Yours to run, without Pact.

    07Follow-up

    A return to check it held.

    Who does the work

    The people who scoped it are the people who deliver it.

    01Founder-led

    Pact’s founders lead every engagement, start to finish.

    02Practitioners first

    Both have run student governments through elections, budgets, handovers, services and initiatives.

    03

    The Pact
    Experts Network

    Practising specialists, brought onto every engagement that needs them.

    You get an expert on the exact problem in front of you.

    • Elections
    • Governance
    • Finance
    • Academic affairs
    • Mediation
    • Events & programming
    • Marketing & communications
    • Leadership & teams

    Starting

    Every engagement begins with a conversation.

    Tell us what you’re facing. If it’s work Pact should take on, a proposal follows. Everything discussed stays confidential.

    Request a discovery call

    Research

    The only record of how student government actually works here.

    Not a survey and not an estimate. A standing record, built institution by institution, of who governs students here, how they are chosen, what they control, and what they do not.

    0

    countries in the record

    0

    institutions profiled

    Fourteen fields on each, and a five-tier grade of how active the student government actually is.

    The record

    What Pact holds on every institution it maps.

    Each institution is entered on the same fourteen fields, verified against primary sources rather than assembled from directories. Where a field cannot be established, it is recorded as unknown rather than estimated.

    The activity scale

    Every institution graded on the same five tiers.

    A student government can exist on paper and not exist in practice. The scale separates the two, and it is the instrument that makes comparison across countries possible at all.

    Regional findings

    What the record shows.

    Six questions the regional record can answer that nothing else in this region can.

    Placeholder. Figures in this section are structural only. Each will be replaced with a verified aggregate drawn from the regional record, with the count and date of the extract stated beneath it. Nothing here publishes until it is true.

    What runs on it

    The record is not a by-product. Everything else is built on it.

    The Standard

    Written against what the map showed, rather than imported from another region and adjusted.

    Peer comparison

    A member’s self-assessment is read against comparable institutions, not against a generic benchmark.

    The benchmarking reveals

    The national and regional reveals at Pact’s events are read off the record.

    Where Pact opens next

    Market sequence follows what the map shows about where student governments can actually act.

    Access and practice

    Findings are public. Records are not.

    PublicAggregate regional findings, the method, and the activity scale.
    MembersInstitution-level records — governance structures, electoral cycles, funding models and documents — through the Pact database.
    Member contentPact holds no standing access to a member’s own documents or records. A member’s material is theirs, and Pact does not read it as a matter of course.
    ConfidentialityNothing gathered inside a membership or an engagement is published in a form that identifies the institution.
    CorrectionsAny institution may ask to see and correct what the record holds about it, member or not. Ask about your institution.

    Founding membership

    Apply for founding membership.

    Tell us who you are, and Pact will come to you.

    What happens after this
    1. Pact writes back within two working days, to the address you give here.
    2. A first conversation with the people who run your student government.
    3. A preliminary plan, showing what membership covers for you specifically. Where the institution has to approve it, Pact will join that meeting with you.
    4. The membership year begins, once the plan is agreed.
    Nothing is owed here

    This form commits your institution to nothing.

    National Conference

    Register your interest.

    The first National Conferences are coming soon, starting in Egypt and the UAE. Register here and you will hear the date, the host and how to bring your team before they are public.

    Who attends

    Full student government teams and their advisors.

    This is not registration

    Registration opens once the host institution is confirmed. Everyone who registers interest hears first, and members attend at a reduced rate.

    Consulting

    Request a discovery call.

    Forty-five to sixty minutes, with no commitment afterwards.

    Write the situation, not the solution

    The most useful thing you can put below is what is actually happening. What broke, who is affected, what has already been tried. Pact will work out the shape of the engagement from there.

    If it is smaller than you think

    Some problems are answered in a sentence rather than an engagement. Member institutions get those answers through advisory access at no charge, and you will be told which yours is on the call.

    Contact

    Talk to Pact.

    Tell us what you need, and it reaches the right person.

    Direct address

    hello@pactmena.com

    When Pact replies

    Within two working days, to the address you give here.

    Legal

    Privacy notice.

    What Pact collects through this site, why, how long it is kept, and what you can ask Pact to do with it.

    In short

    Pact collects what you type into a form on this site, uses it to reply to you and to run a membership or an engagement, and shares it with nobody. There is no advertising, no tracking across other sites, and nothing is sold.

    Ask us anything about it

    Write to hello@pactmena.com to see what is held about you, to correct it, or to have it deleted.

    Who is responsible

    Pact MENA is the controller of the personal data described here. Enquiries about this notice, or about data held about you, go to hello@pactmena.com and are answered within thirty days.

    What is collected

    Only what you enter into a form on this site. Depending on the form, that is your name, your role, your institution and country, your institutional email address, and anything you write in a free-text field. Nothing is collected about you unless you submit it.

    Standard server logs record the request itself, including an IP address, for security and to keep the site running.

    Why it is used

    • To reply to the enquiry you sent, and to arrange a conversation or a call.
    • To administer a membership or an engagement you go on to hold, including the records that make it work.
    • To invite you to Pact events where you asked to hear about them.

    Nothing is used for automated decision-making, and no profile is built about you beyond the record your institution holds inside its own membership.

    Who it is shared with

    Nobody, other than the service providers Pact uses to run the site, send email and store records, who act on Pact's instructions and may not use the data for anything of their own. Personal data is not sold, rented or given to advertisers.

    Some of those providers operate outside the country you are in. Where data moves across a border it is done under the safeguards those transfers require.

    How long it is kept

    Enquiries that go nowhere are deleted within twenty-four months. Records connected to a membership or an engagement are kept for as long as the relationship runs and for the period afterwards that accounting and legal obligations require.

    Cookies

    This site sets no advertising or tracking cookies.

    Changes

    If this notice changes materially, the date below changes with it and anyone holding a current membership is told directly.

    Last updated 30 September 2026. © 2026 Pact MENA LLC.