Regional

GEMS Founder to Develop New International Chain of Schools

Two of the world’s leading education entrepreneurs are to partner in building 60 multimillion-dollar, high-end international schools in big cities across the world that will cater to the children of bankers, diplomats and executives who have to regularly uproot their families. The two founders of Nations Academy come from different ends of the school-building spectrum. Chris Whittle started the Edison Schools company, which runs schools in some of America’s poorest neighborhoods; whereas, his partner is the chairman of Dubai-based Global Education Management Systems (GEMS), which runs private schools around the world. Annual tuition fees at Nations Academy schools will be between $15,000 and $40,000, depending on the city.

The new schools will be designed to meet the needs of parents in the West and fast-developing nations like India and China, and they will aim to appeal to parents who want to give their children an international outlook. The first school is expected to open in 2010, but the full network of 60 will not be complete for another 10 to 12 years.

– Financial Times
July 2, 2007

Saudi Arabia

Handsomely Endowed Graduate University to Open in 2009

The King of Saudi Arabia will soon open the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, a graduate university thought to have one of the largest university endowments in the world.

An international search has begun for the university’s first president, who will be appointed by the end of the year or early 2008. Other top administrative posts will be filled after the president is in place. The university, which is slated to open in Rabigh in 2009, will include four research institutes on resources, energy and the environment; biosciences and engineering; materials science and engineering; and applied mathematics and computer science.

Grants of up to US$1 billion over ten years will pay for research collaborations with universities worldwide into desalination and water supply, carbon capture and hydrogen-rich fuels, industrial biotechnology, catalysis and polymer chemistry, language software technologies and computational linguistics, and scientific computing. The university has already signed cooperation deals with institutions in Singapore, France and the United States. There will also be scholarships for students. The Discovery Scholars scheme pays for tuition and accommodation for up to 250 undergraduates at other universities and colleges who would start a postgraduate course at KAUST when they finish their studies.

– KAUST news release
May 2007

Bahrain

National Quality Assurance Agency Set to Begin Work

Universities in Bahrain will soon be under scrutiny by an independent University Quality Review Unit (UQRU) designated as Bahrain’s official quality assurance agency. It will have a mandate to conduct external quality reviews of universities and publish their findings.

Diagnostic studies carried out by the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Ministry of Education for the development of national education initiatives showed that a majority of Bahraini university graduates were not performing up to international standards, or the demands of the labor market. The UQRU will review universities against a set of quality indicators. International experts from the Australian Universities Quality Agency as well as local university leaders will work together during the evaluation process.

According to Martin Foster, project leader and member of Bahrain’s Economic Development Board, “Certifying local private universities has long been a problem in Bahrain due to the lack of parameters to determine an institution’s competency. Local universities would usually establish partnerships with UK- or US-based universities to add to their credentials but it does not necessarily mean that it follows the same directives, policies and curricula.”

Pilot assessments at two universities will be carried out this year, before full implementation is carried out in 2008.

– Bahrain Tribune
June 15, 2007

Israel

Technion Ranked Best Institution of Higher Education

According to a student poll, Israel’s top three institutions are Technion Israel Institute for Technology, Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University. The poll, conducted by Above-Average, a private market research company, canvassed some 8,600 students from 35 universities and colleges about the level of teaching, reading assignments, campus life, faculty, and administrative service quality. Higher Education Board data, academic publications and other criterion were also taken into account.

Ben Gurion University of Negev was ranked fourth and the Inter Disciplinary Center in Hertzliyah fifth. Tel Hai Academic College jumped to sixth place after it ranked 15th in last year’s poll.

– Haaretz
July 3, 2007

Students Facing 70% Tuition Hike

A government higher education committee has recommended to the Israeli cabinet that tuition be raised approximately 70 percent in a bid to reverse the ‘brain drain’, and that the higher education budget increase by US$600 million over five years. The Shochat Committee’s primary mandate was to propose higher education reforms following budget cuts between 2001 and 2007 of around 15 percent per student.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Education Minister Yuli Tamir said in May, in the wake of a 41-day student strike protesting preliminary recommendations, that they would discuss the committee’s findings with student associations before the cabinet votes on them. College and university students have warned that they will not stand for a tuition hike. Only $360 million of the total budget increase will come from the government, according to the committee. The rest will come from the tuition hike and sources within the higher education establishment.

Faculty and student organizations have criticized the committee, while university administrators have welcomed it. Last year the university presidents said if the government does not restore the budget cuts, the universities would not be able to maintain the same academic standards and would therefore have to close for the next school year.

– Haaretz
July 11, 2007

Palestinian Territories

Art Institute to Open in Fall Semester

The International Academy of Art Palestine, which plans to open in September, will be the first art-dedicated higher-education institution in the Palestinian territories. Based in Ramallah, the new academy will offer a four-year program. The money for the academy’s first three years of operation was donated by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership with the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
July 13, 2007

United Arab Emirates

Georgetown to Establish Center at Knowledge Village

Dubai’s Knowledge Village has signed a memorandum of understanding with Georgetown University’s Center for Intercultural Education and Development (CIED) to set up a center in Dubai. The CIED Dubai center will offer programs in business; management; law and public administration; and institutional development, quality and education.

– AMEInfo
July 8, 2007