Regional
Intel Announces Plans to Train 2 Million Arabs
US-based microprocessor giant Intel and United Arab Emirates-based Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation have announced plans to train two million teachers in the Arab world by 2011, according to a report from the WAM news agency in early April.
The partnership would extend the Intel Teach program to Arab countries and target 150,000 teachers in 2008. It would also develop an Arabic online professional development program to provide high quality training in remote areas. The project seeks to improve teaching methods through the effective use of technology. Training will occur in the countries of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.
The program aims at developing Arab talent and improving education in the region. The Intel Teach program has trained more than five million teachers so far in more than 40 countries and plans to train 13 million teachers by 2011.
– Intel News Release [1]
April 8, 2008
Israel/Palestinian Territories
Israeli College on West Bank Loses University Status
The Ariel University Center of Samaria [2] in the occupied West Bank settlement of Ariel that began upgrading to university status last year will have that title revoked, despite the vocal protests of the institution’s president. The Israeli institution has an enrollment of more than 10,000 undergraduate students, 38 doctoral students, and 220 senior faculty members, in 24 departments across five disciplines.
The institution was known as the College of Judea and Samaria until July of last year when an official change in title was approved by the Israeli Justice Ministry. The name change came as a result of a recommendation from a government committee that the college be upgraded to a “university center” with a view to eventually upgrading the college to become Israel’s eighth recognized research university.
Despite ministry approval, however, the Council of Higher Education [3], which oversees financing for higher education, opposed granting university status to the college. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, it has now emerged that at a meeting at the Justice Ministry on January 3, government officials decided that the college’s upgrade and change of name had not been properly approved by the relevant Israeli military commander in the West Bank. On March 19, the Council of Higher Education wrote to the Justice Ministry, requesting that it reverse an earlier decision to approve the name change.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [4]
March 27, 2008
Arab Israelis Increasingly Educated, Increasingly Unemployed
The education levels of Arab Israelis has risen considerably in recent decades, yet they continue to struggle for jobs. In the 1960s, only 50 percent of adult Arab Israelis had more than one year of schooling. By 2005, half of them had more than 11 years of education. The Jewish sector has also seen an impressive, albeit less drastic, increase in education. In the 1960s, half of all Jewish adults had less than eight years of schooling. By 2005, more than 50 percent of adult Jews had more than12 years of education.
However, it is the Arab contingent of college graduates who struggle to find jobs. The number of unemployed Arab college graduates is significantly higher in the Arab sector, than the number of unemployed Jewish college graduates in the Jewish sector. Today, unemployed college graduates, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, make up 12.5 percent of all Arab college graduates. The figure on the Jewish side is only 3.5 percent.
– Haaretz [5]
March31, 2008
Saudi Arabia
Former Michigan U. V.P. to Head Talent Search for New Saudi Research University
Under construction, yet already taking up plenty of newspaper space, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology [6] (Kaust), recently hired Fawwaz Ulaby, a professor of engineering and former vice president for research at the University of Michigan [7], as provost. Mr. Ulaby will be responsible for attracting approximately 300 more academics to Saudi Arabia. His main task will be to build the new university’s faculty body from the ground up, while taking a leave of absence from Michigan.
The $10-billion institution is scheduled to begin operations in September of 2009.
Mr. Ulaby says Kaust aims to have 300 professors and 2,000 students within five years. However, it will start out with about 100 faculty members and an enrollment from 500 to 600 — all graduate students.
– PRNews [8]
March 21, 2008
Saudi Government Stresses Priority for Higher Education Reform
The Saudi government is getting ready to launch a 25-year development strategy for higher education, which will include the opening of 12 new universities, and the signing of cooperation agreements with leading universities in the US, Europe and Asia. According to government officials, the number of universities in the country has risen from eight to 20 in the last four years, while education and training received one third of the country’s general budget this year.
Saudi Arabia recently signed a series of agreements with France to promote cooperation in higher education. France has also agreed to increase the number of Saudi students at its universities from 600 to 2,000 over the next two years. The agreements include student and teacher exchanges, and cooperation with leading French institutes. As one example, the College of Tourism and Heritage signed four agreements with French universities to promote cooperation in the tourism, hotel and antiquities industries. Sources cited by Arab News suggest that the two countries are expected to sign a further 50 agreements in various fields including nanotechnology, medicine, biology, micro science, physics, chemistry, languages, humanities, business administration and international relations.
There are currently an estimated 40,000 Saudi students pursuing higher studies in universities and institutes in Europe, America, China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, according to government statistics. The 25-year higher education development strategy will soon be presented to higher education authorities for approval. Prepared by Saudi academics and officials, the strategy is aimed at tuning the higher education system with the country’s development and job market requirements.
– Arab News [9]
April 1, 2008
US to Double Student Visa Issuances
The U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ford Fraker, told an audience of businessmen in Al-Jouf that the United States aims to double the number of student visas issued to Saudis.
“Currently there are 15,000 Saudi students in the US,” he said during an event in April at the Al-Jouf Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “We aim to increase their numbers to 30,000 over the next five years.”
Fraker said Saudi Arabia should bolster its English-language programs because it is generally required for Saudis seeking to pursue higher studies in the US.
– Arab News [10]
April 10, 2008
United Arab Emirates
Yale Says ‘No’ to Abu Dhabi
In talks for more than a year, Yale University [11] announced in April that it will not be pursuing a plan for an arts institute in Abu Dhabi, involving Yale’s art, music, architecture and drama schools. The stated reason for the failure to reach an agreement was Abu Dhabi’s insistence that Yale offer degree programs at the institute, and Yale’s refusal to grant its degrees in Abu Dhabi. The art institute was to be part of Abu Dhabi’s development of Saadiyat Island as a cultural center, with world-class museums such as the Louvre, the Guggenheim and others.
In a press release, Yale officials stated that they were not prepared to offer degrees in Abu Dhabi, as the effort to bring Yale-quality faculty to the Gulf was an undertaking they were not prepared to take on. In addition, the university states it did not believe it would be able to attract the quality of students it attracts to the New Haven campus.
Unlike many of the large American research universities, Ivy League universities have been reluctant to offer their degrees overseas. With the exception of Cornell’s medical school in Qatar [12], the elite Ivies have kept their overseas offerings to non-degree programs. Yale, for example, has dozens of foreign programs in China and elsewhere, but none offer Yale degrees.
Last year, Yale’s president, Richard Levin, told the Yale alumni magazine that he hoped to complete the university’s Abu Dhabi agreement in the summer of 2007. Each of Yale’s arts graduate schools was planning activities — master classes, design workshops and elementary school programs — for the Abu Dhabi institute, all of which were to be paid for by the emirate’s government.
– The New York Times [13]
April 12, 2008