Israel

Reforms Eroding Once Great Universities

Although Israeli universities rank as the fourth best in the world – according to the number of citations in leading scientific journals — budget cuts and a cadre of emigrating academics means once-great universities are now living on borrowed time, according to an interview with Professor Gur-Ze’ev in the Times Higher Education Supplement. The professor of education at Haifa University told the British publication that current rankings reflect the achievements of researchers trained in a bygone era who owe their success to investment that no longer exists and who try to operate in a system being dismantled around them.

In short, he argued that they succeed despite, not because of, the current infrastructure. And he predicted that standards would slip substantially in the next couple of decades. The state has cut budgets for research and ongoing operations by more than US$300 million in the past decade, leaving the country’s annual higher education budget at $1.3 billion, roughly equivalent to the running costs of one large US university.

And today there is an exodus from Israeli academia to universities in the UK, the US and Eastern Europe. Research suggests that the brain drain is gathering pace quickly, with the percentage of academics leaving Israel almost doubling every two years. In 2002, 0.9 per cent of academics left; by 2004 it was 1.7 per cent. They are leaving in part because of changes to academic contracts, which are increasingly offered on a part-time basis as the government decided in 2000 that tenure intensifies inertia.

Seven years later, the reforms are still being implemented and opponents are still trying to block them. Since the process began, student numbers have increased, by between 30 and 50 percent. But just as the reforms were beginning to bite, so was the second intifada, which started in September 2000. This intensified spending on defense, which has long been blamed for diverting funds from academia. Part of the Government’s response has been to charge students more for their university tuition, a move that sparked a wave of strikes over recent weeks. Academics, already frustrated and angered at the Government’s higher education policy, have been quick to support them.

– The Times Higher Education Supplement
May 18, 2007

Qatar

Independent Schools Committed to Hiring 60% Female Teachers

All independent schools in Qatar are committed to raising the percentage of their Qatari female teaching staff to a minimum 60 percent by the next academic year, according to a senior official of the Supreme Education Council (SEC).

Addressing a symposium on Qatar’s Education for a New Era initiative, Khalid Al Haraqan, assistant director of SEC’s Education Institute, said that all independent school operators have been asked to ensure that at least 60 percent of their woman teachers are Qataris by the next academic year. The preparatory and secondary level schools had achieved 25 percent qatarisation in their first year of operation, while in the primary schools, it had gone up to 70 percent, said the official.

The plan and the Education Institute are part of a broader Qatari reform initiative known as Education for a New Era, which seeks to establish a chain of independent schools across the country.

– The Peninsula
May 24, 2007

Saudi Arabia

15 New Colleges Approved

Saudi ruler King Abdullah bin Abdulaziaz approved in May proposals made by the Higher Education Council to establish 15 new colleges, including two medical colleges in Riyadh and Al Kharj and an institute of tourism and a nanotechnology center in Jeddah.

– Khaleej Times
May 16, 2007

United Arab Emirates

Sheikh Makes Huge Gift to Regional Education Initiatives

The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, announced in May that he will give US$10 billion to set up an educational foundation in the Middle East. The money is being made available to improve the standard of education and research in the region and to stimulate job creation, in a bid to create “a knowledge-based society,” Sheikh Mohammed said. It is thought to be one of the largest charitable donations in history. The announcement was made to widespread applause at the recent World Economic Forum in Jordan.

“There is a wide knowledge gap between us and the developed world in the West and in Asia. Our only choice is to bridge this gap as quickly as possible, because our age is defined by knowledge,” the sheikh said. The foundation will be based in the United Arab Emirates and begin operating later this year. The money will be used to establish research programs and research centers, provide scholarships for students to attend leading universities, and support research across the region.

– The BBC
May 19, 2007