Egypt
New Law School Barred for a Decade
Egypt’s once-elite law schools have experienced a serious deterioration in quality over the last few years, according to officials with the Ministry of Higher Education [1], an opinion that recently prompted Minister of Higher Education Hani Hilal to announce a ban on the creation of new schools for the next 10 years and a drastic reduction in the number of students to be admitted to the country’s 15 existing institutions.
Until the 1950s, law schools in Egypt were elite institutions whose graduates held prominent posts, including in government. Later the schools experienced serious overcrowding due to lowered entry requirements. Their alumni now rank high among jobless graduates in the country of 80 million people.
Hilal’s controversial move was based on the findings of a study conducted by his ministry. It revealed the number of law students in Egypt reached 244,000 in 2009, up from 169,000 in 2002. The students were taught by 500 academics – on average nearly 490 students per lecturer. At Cairo University [2], the ratio was 965 law students per lecturer while at Alexandria University [3], another public institution, the figure rose to 1,200, according to the study.
Hilal said the current status of law schools in Egypt made the mission to improve quality impossible to achieve.
– University World News [4]
May 9, 2010
Qatar
Houston Community College to Develop Campus
Houston Community College [5] announced in April that it had been chosen by the Qatar government’s Supreme Education Council [6] from among eight candidates to help develop the first American-style community college in the Gulf country.
Houston Community College has been selected to create a “custom curriculum” and found a “fully operational” community college in Doha by this fall. There has been no official disclosure on the financial value of the five-year contract; however, The Houston Chronicle reports that the contract is worth $45 million [7].
The contract will generously benefit Houston Community College. Mary Spangler, chancellor of the college, said her institution will retain about 10 percent of the contract’s worth – or $4.5 million – after spending to develop the institution in Qatar. The Texas college will provide faculty and staff to the new Community College of Qatar [8] while it is in development. Spangler said that nearly all of the professors will be American, as there are few, if any, Qatari academics with community college experience. Students attending the new institution will have dual enrollment in Houston Community College. Through this relationship, the new Qatari institution plans to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools [9], Houston Community College’s accreditor.
The new institution will primarily focus on transferring students to four-year colleges within Qatar – including the American colleges there – eventually training Qataris for jobs in fields ranging from oil and gas technology to finance and banking. This focus on traditional-age students differentiates the new institution from its American counterpart. The Community College of Qatar is slated to open its doors this fall to about 300 students and 35 faculty members. Officials hope that in the next three years the institution will grow to serve nearly 1,000 students.
– InsideHigherEd [10]
April 20, 2010
Canadian College Overpays Employees to the Tune of $5 Million
The Newfoundland and Labrador government announced in April that the College of the North Atlantic [11] had overpaid employees working at its branch in Qatar by approximately $5 million, CBC News [12] reported. The government also announced that it was accepting the resignation of Jean Madill as president of the college.
A provincial official explained before Madill’s resignation that the employees had been overpaid, and as a result of that, the college miscalculated how much Qatar paid in fees and benefits. According to the official, employees had been paid $3.5 million too much in salaries and $1.5 million in fees and benefits. The official also confirmed that Madill is not one of the employees who had been overpaid.
King said employees will continue to receive their current salary for the remainder of their contracts. He said the government is investigating how the salary errors were made, and is hiring an “external consultant to conduct a review of this situation and recommend changes to ensure protocols are in place to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.”
CNA’s Qatar campus employs about 400 faculty members and provides programs to about 2,300 students. It opened in 2002.
– CBC [13]
April 26, 2010
United Arab Emirates
University-Industry Links Promoted
The United Arab Emirates University [14], a leading national university, has launched an industry-linked education program ‘Ta’awon’ in partnership with the Dubai Aluminum Company and other leading businesses.
The program is a first step in implementing the Gulf country’s ‘UAE Vision 2021’ project which focuses on using innovation, research, science and technology to build a knowledge-based, productive and competitive economy.
Announced in late March, the private-public cooperation program is designed to introduce reforms in higher education, so graduates are better prepared to innovate upon leaving universities and be productive contributors to the economic growth of the country.
– University World News [15]
April 18, 2010