Bahrain

Online University to Open in 2010

Bahrain will play host to an online university, which plans to offer courses to students from the Middle East and Asia, beginning in 2010. The Asia e-University (AeU) is the result of an agreement signed between the Bahrain Education Ministry and the Malaysia-based, non-profit university.

The scheme was originally proposed by Malaysian officials at a meeting of the 30 member states of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue in May in Doha, Qatar. Malaysia is providing US$50 million (BD18.840m) to launch the e-university. It will be managed by Open University Malaysia, which has run online courses since 2002.

Ministry officials are projecting an initial intake of 4,100 students. Degree programs will be offered at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels in information technology, science, health and engineering, among other subject areas. Professionally oriented courses will also be offered. The university seeks to become a leading innovator of e-learning in the Asia Pacific region and to provide a model for other national e-learning initiatives. AeU will also set up two branch campuses in Singapore and Saudi Arabia, each by 2010.

– Gulf Daily
October 3, 2008

Israel

Universities Barely Avoid Delayed Opening of Academic Year

University presidents reluctantly agreed in late October to delay the scheduled opening of the academic on November 2, due to disputes with the Finance Ministry, which refused to restore $US125 million in budget cuts. However, a last-minute reprieve came from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert just three days before strike action was scheduled to commence. Mr. Olmert directed the government to restore nearly $140-million to the universities’ budgets.

The universities have been demanding that the government, over the next five years, restore $625 million that was cut from their budgets a decade ago. They say they would not be able to begin the academic year unless the first 20 percent, or $125 million, was paid immediately.

The $625 million repayment, to begin in 2008-9, was a key recommendation by the Shochat Commission, a government-appointed committee that suggested far-reaching plans for reform of higher education in Israel more than a year ago. So far the government has not found time to discuss the commission’s findings in depth, nor to implement any of those findings.

Administrators and staff were united in a decision to make a stand against continuing with what they see as business as usual, in the face of years of budget cuts, job loses, program closures, and huge faculty loses to institutions overseas. Although tuition will not rise through government mandate in 2008-2009, students also support the idea. Lecturers said the decision was not one of protest, but simply one of feasibility. The closure would have affected 250,000 students at Israel’s seven research universities and 30 colleges, all of which are publicly financed.

Approximately 700 senior and junior staff have been fired since 2001 from the state’s universities and colleges, legislators in the education committee were told by testifying academics and university leaders.

“It’s as if an entire university was eliminated, and it’s time to bring it back. Academic staff who have decided to stay in the country should be rewarded,” said Prof. Asher Yahalom from the Ariel University Center of Samaria.

– Jerusalem Post
October 12, 2008
– Haaretz
October 23, 2008
– Chronicle of Higher Education
October 31, 2008

Libya

American Architects Design 2 New University Campuses

Two of Libya’s large state universities are building new satellite campuses, and they have employed the services of American architects to draw up the master plans; the first major American architects to work in the North African country since the United States lifted sanctions in 2004.

An arm of the Libyan government partly responsible for increasing the country’s capacity to produce university graduates contracted with the Global Education Studio, in Princeton, N.J., to build the two new satellite campuses. The first project is a new campus for the 7th October University, in the city of Bani Walid, which will serve approximately 3,200 students.

Design work is just beginning on the second project, a 222-acre satellite campus of Al Asmariya University that will accommodate about 2,200 students near the coastal Mediterranean town of Zlitan.

– Architectural Record
October 17, 2008

Saudi Arabia

Government Rescinds Scholarships for 512 Poor-Performing Students

The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Higher Education brought home 512 students studying at universities overseas and expelled them from the country’s international-scholarship program because of weak performance and poor attendance records, according to a report on the Saudi Gazette website.

Over the past four years, the ministry has covered the costs for 42,000 Saudi students studying abroad as part of the King Abdullah Scholarship Program, which is designed to allow Saudi students to attend specialized programs not offered by the country’s higher-education system, especially in fields for which there is great demand in the Saudi labor market.

The recent recall of students seems to confirm reports that some Saudi students were struggling at foreign institutions. As a result, the ministry is trying to lift the performance of Saudi students abroad by requiring students to attend an extensive orientation course before they head off. The course, which is intended to prepare students for demanding international programs, will last three months to a year, depending on the student’s success, said Abdullah Al-Mousa, undersecretary for scholarships.

– Saudi Gazette
September 20, 2008

International Scholarships Awarded to Women in Greater Numbers than Men

The Ministry of Higher Education has selected a greater number of women than men to receive grants to study abroad through the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program. According to an October statement by the ministry, a total of 5,775 scholarships were awarded this year.

A distinctive feature of this year’s selection is that women dominated the scholarships for masters and research programs. Of a total of 4,779 students selected for master’s programs, 2,585 are women while 86 women students were selected for doctoral degree programs from a total of 127 recipients, according to ministry officials interviewed by Arab News.

The total number of Saudis studying abroad, including those who study at their own expense, is about 50,000 across 20 host countries.

– Arab News
October 15, 2008

United Arab Emirates

Curriculum Reforms to Promote English

The national government is instituting reforms to the Emirates’ school system amid concerns that local students are entering university underprepared. English comprehension has been a particular point of concern, as English is increasingly used as the language of instruction at both state, private and foreign institutions of higher education. Universities are currently spending on average one-third of their budgets on foundation courses, which are offered mainly as a means of improving English-language skills.

Consequently, a central pillar of the education reforms will be the expansion and improvement of English-language teaching across the system. English will be introduced as early as elementary school. School curriculum reforms will also focus on shifting pedagogic norms from rote learning to critical thinking and problem solving. According to the Minister of Education, Hanif Hassan, “At present the curriculum is based around textbook learning and memorization. We need a curriculum that functions through the achievement of nationally recognized standards.”

All public-sector teachers will be required to take pedagogy lessons over the next two to three years, according to UAE authorities. These courses, which began in October, will focus on ways of teaching the new curriculum.

– University World News
September 19, 2008

Western Academics Flood Emirati Universities, Government Agencies

The United Arab Emirates is not only importing foreign campuses, but also foreign academics to teach at and head up their public institutions of higher education and government agencies, according to a recent report from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

In September, Wyatt (Rory) Hume, a former provost of the University of California system, took over as provost at United Arab Emirates University, the most comprehensive of the country’s three public institutions. In October, Daniel M. Johnson, president emeritus of the University of Toledo, became provost of Zayed University, which has branches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. He is one in a series of Americans to hold that post.

Two-thirds of the nation’s 54,000 tertiary students attend one of three public university-level institutions – Zayed University, the Higher Colleges of Technology, and UAE University, where tuition is paid for by the government. At UAE University most deans and faculty members are Western expatriates. And all but two members of the faculty committee recently charged with developing the university’s strategic plan were from other countries, according to faculty members.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research also is dominated by Western professionals. These academics are working closely with government officials to fundamentally change the higher-education system in the country’s seven emirates.

Arabic has been all but eliminated as the language of instruction in favor of English. Western-educated expatriate professors vastly outnumber their Emirati colleagues. And the entire university system, from classroom instruction to institutional accreditation, is being overhauled to conform to American standards.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
September 26, 2008

Herriot Watt Enjoying Strong Application and Enrollment Numbers

Over 250 new undergraduate students and 200 new graduate students enrolled at the Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus for its fourth year of operations in October. Total student numbers at the Scottish branch campus are estimated at close to 1,000, with applications having doubled since last year. Offering a range of engineering, management, business and IT degree programs as well as a degree-entry program, Heriot-Watt University was one of the pioneers in the opening of Dubai International Academic City three years ago and has grown in strength with each year, according to a press statement.

– Heriot-Watt News Release
September 17, 2008