Egypt

Russian University to Open

A Russian university is set to open in the outskirts of Cairo this fall, according to reports in the Russian media.

The Russia-Egypt University, which is located 45 kilometers from Cairo in Badr, will house faculties of engineering, tourism management, information technology and linguistics. Lectures will be conducted in English by mainly Russian staff.

In its first year, officials hope the university will admit 300 to 400 students. Future enrollments are projected at 2,000. According to Russian embassy staff in Cairo, the university recently received an operating license from the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

— RIA Novosti
April 14, 2005

Iran

New Standards for High School Teachers

RFE/RL reports that an unnamed official with the Ministry of Education and Training has announced that all teaching candidates must have at least a bachelor’s degree, citing reports from Radio Farda in May. The official added that prospective teachers must be trained as teachers. Paris-based professor Said Peyvandi, a pedagogical specialist, told Radio Farda this is an important development. Right now, he said, some two-thirds of educators only have a high school diploma or associate’s degree. He explained that in the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a rush to recruit new teachers, and many of them secured their jobs through Islamic associations and were poorly educated.

— RFE/RL
May 5, 2005

Australian University Looking for Academic Cooperation

The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), in cooperation with the Australian embassy in Tehran, is planning to broaden academic cooperation with Iranian universities, it was announced in April. According to media reports, RMIT plans to establish joint-degree courses with Iranian partner universities. Iranian students would have the opportunity to complete their studies in Australia.

— Payvand
April 19, 2005

Iraq

State of Nation’s Universities Revealed in UN Report

A report released in April by United Nations University reveals that the university system across Iraq is in disarray. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began more than two years ago, 48 professors have been assassinated and 84 percent of Iraq’s institutions of higher education have been “burnt, looted or severely destroyed in some way.”

The report, written by the UN International Leadership Institute, focuses on the reconstruction needs of Iraqi universities, based on findings from a survey of university faculty across the country conducted by UNESCO last year, and on presentations by Iraqi academics who attended a UNESCO meeting in Paris this year. The Paris meeting was intended to produce a series of action plans for rebuilding Iraq’s universities. They include a series of professional development workshops for Iraqi academics on topics such as quality assurance, university governance and strategic planning.

UNESCO is currently organizing short-term fellowships for Iraqi academics at European and American universities, in an effort to bring them up-to-date in their fields and to help them establish contacts with foreign scholars. UNESCO is also helping to re-equip university laboratories and libraries and to reorganize teacher-training programs.

The report is available on the U.N. University Website.

Israel

Controversial University Upgrades Get Cabinet Approval

In an effort to strengthen the settlement blocs of Ariel, which the Israeli government hopes to retain inside Israel’s final borders, the cabinet recommended in May upgrading the status of the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel from a college to a university by a 13-7 margin. The vote came two weeks after Britain’s Association of University Teachers voted to boycott Bar-Ilan University because of its ties to the college in Ariel. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has made clear that he sees the upgrade of the college as a way to show that Ariel is inside the large settlement blocs and a legitimate part of Israel.

According to College of Judea and Samaria president Prof. Dan Meyerstein, the college — founded in 1982 — has 7,000 students from all sectors of the Israeli population and is the largest public college in Israel.

The cabinet also unanimously approved recommending the establishment of a new university in the Galilee, which will be located in Karmiel. The project will be aided by a US$100 million donation by businessman Arnon Milchan, which college officials hope will help win over those opposed to the upgrade on the grounds that the university system in Israel is already grossly underfunded. Officials have pledged not to ask for any additional funds for five years.

— Jerusalem Post
May 1, 2005

Jordan

German Jordanian U. Set to Start Classes

The German Jordanian University for Applied Sciences (GJU) will begin its first academic year this October at a temporary location in Amman.

The university will focus on vocational and applied educational programs and offer instruction in 12 concentrations, to be announced at a later date. An estimated 480 students are expected to enroll in the inaugural class. A joint committee is currently considering the terms of admission to the university, which might be direct, rather than through the Unified Admission Committee. However, it is expected that qualifications for admission will fit the general framework for admission to the Kingdom’s public universities.

A delegation from Germany, which included Minister of Education and Scientific Research Edelgard Bulmahn along with other academic officials, attended the ceremonial groundbreaking for the permanent location of the university in Amman. Also in attendance were King Abdullah and Jordanian Minister of Higher Education, Khalid Touqan.

The Kingdom is providing land and infrastructure, while Germany is responsible for the technical and academic support. A 2,500-acre plot in Mshagar has been chosen as the site of the permanent campus, which will accommodate 4,000 students in the future. GJU will work in close cooperation with the University of Magdeburg Stendal in Germany. The university’s third-year students will spend between six months and one year in Germany training at specialized technical institutes. They will also be offered industrial and commercial internship opportunities.

— Jordan Times
April 20, 2005

Government Looking to Attract More Overseas Students

The government is to extend the residency permits of non-Jordanian students from three to 12 months, according to Prime Minister Adnan Badran.

Addressing a group of foreign students at the University of Jordan, Badran said the Kingdom seeks to become an “educational oasis” for Arab and non-Arab foreign students to live and learn in a cooperative environment. Approximately 3,500 foreign students representing 72 different countries are studying at the University of Jordan, the number-one destination for overseas students. The overall number of non-Jordanians studying in the Kingdom’s public and private universities now stands at 20,000.

— The Jordan Times
May 13, 2005

Qatar

US University to Establish Campus to Train Future Arab Diplomats

Georgetown University has signed an agreement with the Qatar Foundation to establish a branch of its highly regarded Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Georgetown will be the fifth US university to establish a presence in Education City, a cluster of learning and research facilities operated by the Qatar Foundation and located on the outskirts of the capital Doha, when it begins classes next fall. The Washington, D.C.-based university will offer a bachelor of science degree in foreign service with a major in international politics. Enrollment will be restricted to approximately 25 students a year.

The degree requirements will be modeled on the existing Georgetown program, with undergraduate students completing a core liberal arts program including required courses in economics, government and history in addition to two semesters of literature, philosophy and theology, followed by in-depth studies in international affairs.

Georgetown will join Virginia Commonwealth University, Weill Cornell Medical College, Texas A&M University and Carnegie Mellon University, all of which have already established campuses at the Education City facility.

— Georgetown Edmund A. Walsh SFS news release
May 17, 2005

Saudi Arabia

Vocational Regulator Partners With UK Awarding Agencies

The General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT) signed an agreement in February with two British examination bodies to ensure that the qualifications it awards meet international standards. Awarding bodies Edexcel and City & Guilds, working together as the UK Awarding Bodies Consortium, conducted an evaluation of the GOTEVOT system — its programs, assessment processes and quality assurance procedures. Their report showed that GOTEVOT’s vocational system was well designed, and with some additional improvements will meet the criteria for international accreditation. Adjustments to the system that will lead to full international accreditation later in the year are reportedly being implemented.

Following the accreditation procedure, ongoing support will be given to GOTEVOT’s management team, colleges and trainers on an annual basis. This will involve benchmarking and accrediting new programs and the verification of all GOTEVOT centers. Full international accreditation of the vocational education and training system in Saudi Arabia will enable all of GOTEVOT’s students to be registered with the UK awarding bodies, meaning they will be awarded UK certificates and diplomas in addition to GOTEVOT certification.

— British Council, Saudi Arabia newsletter
April-June 2005