Iran

IMF: ‘Brain Drain’ Costly

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has concluded, after surveying more than 60 countries, that Iran has the highest rate of “brain drain” among 61 developing and less developed countries. The IMF says more than 150,000 educated Iranians leave their home country every year in the hope of finding a better life abroad. Some 4 million Iranians now live abroad. Few of those will return home.

Many of those who leave cite a lack of basic social freedoms. The situation is particularly serious among the best-educated. Approximately 80 percent of recent award-winners in scientific fields have chosen to emigrate. According to Amanullah Gharai Moghaddam, a professor of sociology in Tehran, most young people are forced to leave because society cannot absorb them and respond to their needs. He equates the loss of each inventor or scientist to a foreign country to the destruction of 10 oil wells. The unemployment rate is around 20 percent – and higher for young people. Hidden in the statistics is massive underemployment, with students forced to take jobs below their qualifications.

— RFE/RL
March 15, 2004

Israel

Court Orders Recognition of Latvian Degrees

The High Court of Justice recently overturned the state’s decision not to recognize academic degrees issued by the Israel branch of the University of Latvia. The petitioners, including the company representing the university and different groups of civil servants, said the state denied those holding the Latvian degrees the same benefits in wages and conditions enjoyed by graduates of Israeli universities. The decision not to recognize the degrees followed an extensive police investigation into the issuing of “fake degrees” by the university (See September/October 2003 issue WENR).

The probe, which lasted three years, found that students were involved in trading seminar papers, mediating between buyers and sellers, lifting entire theses from an academic database, enlisting lecturers to help with exam questions and offering bribes for those services. The court’s main reason for overturning the state’s decision is that it harms many people against whom no evidence was presented.

— Haaretz
March 19, 2004

Jordan

Jordan, Israel Establish Joint Education Center

Israel and Jordan broke ground in March on a joint science and technology center, the first major venture since the two countries signed a peace accord in 1994. The project is backed by two major U.S. universities, Cornell and Stanford, as well as Jordanian and Israeli businesspeople and former Israeli military officials.

The “Bridging the Rift Center” will be built over the next five years on desert land straddling the Israel-Jordan border. The two countries have allocated 75 acres of land on each side of the border. The center, when completed, will offer doctoral degrees from Cornell and Stanford and conduct research. Initially, it will be open to students from Jordan and Israel, and possibly to Palestinians.

— Jordan Times
Feb. 26, 2004

New Criteria Set for Private Universities

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has received 45 applications for new postsecondary institutions. A government-approved committee has developed new criteria and conditions for the establishment of private universities. Among them, the institutions must be nonprofit; they must offer programs in fields of study that advance national development, such as hotel management, tourism, information technology, communications, marine sciences, civil aviation, agriculture and media; and they must dedicate part of their earnings to scientific research in a specific field. Meanwhile, the ministry reaffirmed its existing policy not to recognize degrees obtained via correspondence.

— AMIDEAST
March 22, 2004

Libya

UK Pact Extends to Education

The British Council has signed a cultural agreement with Libya. The placement service agreement is expected to bring a “huge increase” in the number of Libyans studying at UK universities and colleges, according to British Council Director Gen. David Green. It will also mean the establishment of a British Council center in Tripoli, a Libyan center in London and more English teaching and UK exams being offered in Libya. Sir Clive Booth, former vice chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, will help the Libyan government develop higher education reforms using the UK system as a model.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Jan. 2, 2004

Morocco

Bologna Inspires Reforms

Morocco’s universities are in the first year of far-reaching reforms that aim to bring the institutions into line with Europe and offer students increased flexibility. Approximately 80,000 students began their studies under the new program this year, in which old-style subjects, departments and trimesters made way for credits, modularization and interdisciplinary courses. Across the country’s 17 universities, 70 percent of modules are standardized, making it easier for students to leave university and resume their studies later.

Higher Education Minister Khalid Alioua asserted that the reforms were not directly inspired by the so-called Bologna reforms in Europe. He did say, however, that in deciding on the reforms, international and domestic mobility for students is a high priority, so they decided to move closer to the Bologna model. Under the reforms, more practical content is being introduced into all degrees, and a professional degree is being launched. This will provide vocational qualifications aimed at emerging sectors of the economy and will concentrate on developing practical problem-solving skills.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Jan. 16, 2004

Qatar

Carnegie Mellon Commits to ‘Education City’

Carnegie Mellon University recently announced that it will open a branch campus in Qatar to offer undergraduate study in computer science and business. The program will enroll its first 50 undergraduates in the fall, most of them to be recruited from Qatar and the surrounding region. The new campus is a result of an agreement with the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. Other U.S. institutions participating in the Qatari foundation’s “Education City” development include Cornell University’s medical school, Virginia Commonwealth University, which offers programs in design arts, and Texas A&M University, which has an engineering program.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
March 12, 2004

Saudi Arabia

Germans Ratchet Up Recruitment Drive

A team from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) visited the kingdom at the end of March to encourage Saudis to look at Germany as a foreign study destination. During the 1980s, according to Suzanne Wolf-Khan, second secretary for press and culture at the German embassy in Riyadh, many Saudis studied at German universities, but the numbers have since dropped off.

With the well-publicized drop in the number of Arab students traveling to the United States to pursue tertiary education, many countries have upped their efforts to appeal to students from the region. According to Wolf-Khan, one of the main draws of the German tertiary sector for overseas students is the prospect of free tuition for undergraduates and scholarships to graduate students.

— Arab News
March 17, 2004

Syria

Foreign Students Barred From Studying Islam in Private Schools

Beginning the next academic year, Syria will no longer allow foreign students to study Islam and Islamic law in private schools, according to instructions handed down by the Interior Ministry.

Although officials have stressed the move is not a result of foreign pressure, it comes on the heels of terrorist-related arrests abroad of former students from Islamic schools in Syria, the most publicized of which has been Capt. James Yee, an American Muslim military chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, who had been suspected of espionage. All terrorist-related charges against him were dropped. Yee studied Islam in Damascus in the mid-1990s. Every year, the approximately 20 private Islamic institutes in Syria receive approximately 3,000 foreign students.

— The Jordan Times
March 6, 2004

Fourth Private University

In addition to the three newly licensed private universities we reported on in the last issue of WENR, a fourth – Private Union University – has been licensed and is being developed in Raqqa, with a branch in Manbej.

Tunisia

Postgraduate Degree Reformed

A 2001 decree concerning reform of the third cycle of higher education went into effect this year: Firstly, for reasons of international recognition, the diplôme d’études approfondies (DEA) has been renamed Mastère. Secondly, the duration of studies for the DEA has been shortened from two years to three semesters. The first semester constitutes advanced graduate studies of between 200 and 300 hours, and the second and third semesters are reserved for an internship and thesis preparation.

— La Presse
Feb. 11, 2004

The United Arab Emirates

Report Critical of the State of Higher Education

A report commissioned by the Federal National Council and presented to the Ministry of Education sharply criticizes the country’s 13 public higher-education institutions and blames them, in part, for the sustained levels of high unemployment among recent university graduates. The report assails the overall state of higher education and reproaches colleges and universities for failing to adequately educate students at even a basic level.

The report found a deterioration in students’ abilities in Arabic, English and mathematics, in addition to a litany of poor study skills and problem-solving abilities. The report states that public institutions “have not been producing graduates who are qualified enough to acquire jobs for the professions they covered in their studies.” One of the main reasons is the lack of preparedness among most high school graduates who enter universities. The report notes that a high percentage (48 percent) of students pursue degrees in the arts and humanities, even though the country’s jobs and careers tend to be found in such professions as business, medicine and engineering.

Private colleges in the Emirates are, for the most part, immune to criticism in the report, given their focus on professional education and their success with graduates.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
Jan. 27, 2004

Australian University to Set Up New School

The University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) has announced plans to set up the Dubai Business School and the Center for Teaching English Language on its campus in Jumeirah. The two new facilities are part of the university’s ambitious expansion plans, which also include the introduction of a new master in education program at its main campus in Dubai, and at a later stage, the opening of a college of engineering.

The demand for Australian qualifications is on the rise in the United Arab Emirates, and the university has plans to attract more students from the region, starting with Iran, Saudi Arabia and the neighboring Gulf countries, said UOWD Chief Executive Officer Stephen Martin. Commenting on the accreditation process, he said, the university was expecting to receive accreditation teams from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in March to review all the programs offered.

— Khaleej Times
Feb. 19, 2004