Iran
One Private University Commands 58% of Total Tertiary Enrollments
Islamic Azad University [1], a private university, was established in 1982 to help deal with soaring demand and a chronic lack of capacity in the public higher-education system. In the 26 years since then, Azad has grown to astonishing levels, with an enrollment in excess of 1.3 million students. It now enrolls 58 percent of the country’s university students and employs more than 40,000 academic-staff members at more than 360 locations in Iran and a handful of overseas branches. Some say it is the world’s largest university.
The university was founded by Hashemi Rafsanjani, who served as president of Iran from 1989 to 1997 and ran for re-election in 2005, when he was defeated by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The university, he says, seeks to corner 64 percent of Iran’s higher-education market by end of this decade.
The university’s annual budget is US$1.2-billion, a huge number when one considers that the total public higher-education budget is $2-billion. However, the university’s facilities vary widely from campus to campus. In Isfahan and Shiraz, for example, Azad branches resemble sprawling American campuses, and 30 percent of the university’s students live in dorms. But in Tehran, the high price of real estate means that many Azad sites are in crowded commercial zones. Azad’s size makes it a leading player at home, but it is also looking to continue expanding outside Iran. Its campuses abroad include branches in Britain, the United Arab Emirates [2], Lebanon, Tanzania, and Kenya.
The university is also building links with foreign institutions. Azad has signed memoranda of understanding establishing collaborations with 24 universities in Europe, four with African institutions, and three with colleges in the United States.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [3]
August 15, 2008
Israel
Worst Brain Drain Problem in Developed World
Despite a relatively small population, Israel has managed to build a powerful economy based on hi-tech innovation and brains. Per capita, Israel may have produced the most Nobel laureates of any nation in the world since the country’s inception. With such brainpower and willingness to innovate, Israel attracts more venture capital that any country outside the United States. Now, however, the picture may be changing. With brainpower as its only significant resource, the country is facing a serious crisis as it finds itself losing its best and brightest, with one out of four Israeli academics working in the US because of low pay and limited research budgets at home, reports the Jerusalem Post.
The Manufacturers Association of Israel recently announced that 25,000 hi-tech employees left the country in 2007. If these trends continue, the country’s creative culture could be undermined.
“We don’t have manpower and we don’t have resources and we never will. The only thing that maintains life here is brains,” said Dan Ben-David, a professor of economics and public policy at Tel Aviv University [4], who has researched the topic at length. Ben-David says his data gives Israel what amounts to the worst brain-drain problem of the developed world – six times that of the average European country. “We abandoned an entire generation,” he said.
– Jerusalem Post [5]
August 5, 2008
Saudi Arabia
17 New Colleges Approved, 45 Re-Aligned
The Saudi Minister for Higher Education, Khaled Al-Anqari, reported in July that Saudi leader, King Abdullah, has approved the establishment of 17 new colleges in different parts of the country. In addition, 45 health colleges and five health institutes for girls that were hitherto under the Health Ministry will be brought under universities in various cities.
Al-Anqari said the newly approved colleges were designed to meet labor-market needs. They include colleges of administrative sciences and finance, architecture and planning, business administration, medicine, medical sciences, pharmacology, engineering, computer science and information technology.
“King Abdullah’s approval has also been received to open new departments at universities,” the minister said. They include departments for maxillofacial surgery, pediatric dentistry, preventive dental medicine and dental education at Taiba University [6]‘s College of Medicine, medical education department at Tabuk University [7]‘s College of Medicine, and department of architecture at the College of Engineering of Najran University [8].
– Arab News [9]
July 8, 2008
Cal Poly to Develop Engineering Program at Saudi University
A top-ranking U.S. university signed a contract in July to help establish a new engineering program at a Saudi Arabian university. The deal would pay Cal Poly [10] US$5.9 million to help set up a program in four engineering fields at the state-run Jubail University College [11] in Saudi Arabia.
The proposed contract has been signed by Cal Poly Corp., a nonprofit, private arm that supports the university, after legal review and awaits the signatures of officials at the new Jubail University College, according to Susan Opava, Cal Poly’s dean of research and graduate programs, in an interview with the San Louis Obispo Tribune.
– San Louis Obispo Tribune [12]
July 25, 2008
Huge Increase in Domestic University Enrollments
According to recent comments from government officials, more than 236,000 students have enrolled at university this year, an astonishing 170 percent more than last year, and 88 percent of the total of high school graduates.
In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency, Higher Education Minister Khaled Al-Anqari said, “the Ministry of Higher Education strives to accommodate as many students as possible in response to the needs of the job market. As the number of colleges and universities are growing, 170 percent more men and women students could go for higher education than 2007.” The minister added that the selection process was transparent and accurate.
– Arab News [13]
August 7, 2008
Government to Crack Down on Holders of Bogus U.S. Credentials
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Higher Education has launched an investigation to determine if Saudi nationals have used bogus credentials from U.S.-based diploma mills to obtain work in the Gulf nation.
The U.S. Department of Justice shut down a chain of diploma mills in 2005, the most notorious of which – St Regis University – claimed accreditation from the then-war-torn West African nation of Liberia. Earlier this year the operator of the diploma mills were found guilty of fraud and sentenced to prison terms. The scheme netted the operators a total of US$7.3 million from 10,000 people. The identities of those who purchased fake degrees came to light in July when the local newspaper in Spokane, Wash., where the diploma mill was based, published a list of names [14].
Arab News reported that Saudi authorities opened an investigation after 69 Saudi residents were among those listed by the Spokesman Review. A member of the Saudi Shura Council, a legislative body, criticized Saudi newspapers for having published advertisements for the illegitimate operation in the first place. The official, Abdullah Al-Tuwairqi, urged government officials to extend the investigation to newspapers that publish such ads without first conducting background checks on the institutions.
– Gulf News [15]
August 21, 2008
United Arab Emirates
U.S. Provost Hired by UAE University
Wyatt R. (Rory) Hume, provost and executive vice president for academic and health affairs for the University of California [16] system, has been hired as provost of United Arab Emirates University [17], according to U. Cal news release.
Mr. Hume acted as the University of California’s chief operating officer following the resignation last year of the president, Robert C. Dynes. Richard C. Blum, chairman of the university’s Board of Regents, told the San Francisco Chronicle [18] in June that Mr. Hume had not sought the job of president. The move by United Arab Emirates University, the Persian Gulf nation’s premier research institution, follows a recent report that foreign universities are increasingly looking to elite American universities when hiring top administrators.
– University of California news release [19]
August 13, 2008