WENR, May 2011: Middle East
Regional
Student Protesters in North African Arab States Focus on Reform
Students in Egypt are viewing the country’s recent youth-led revolution as a real, and long-awaited opportunity to reform higher education.
Across the Middle East, the story is the same: hundreds of thousands of young people graduating each year from overcrowded, underfinanced universities and finding themselves without job prospects. By some estimates, as many as one third of Arabs in their 20s can’t find work, with studies showing that tertiary credentials actually decrease chances of employment.
Young people’s indignation over their meager opportunities have contributed to the revolts and protests that are sweeping the region. And now governments both in power and in transition are suddenly faced with high expectations and clear demands, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.
In Egypt and Tunisia, where political reforms have already begun, universities are undergoing historic changes. The secret police, which used to approve key academic matters and interfere in student and faculty elections, are gone. For the first time in more than half a century, universities are holding free and open elections for student unions, with neither Islamists nor opponents of the government being excluded. In addition, campus officials are free to hire without interference from the intelligence services.
The challenges facing universities are many and somewhat overwhelming. Huge enrollment expansions through the lowering of admissions standards in recent years, without corresponding increases in funds have nearly debilitated many universities. In Egypt, the region’s most populous country, the number of college students doubled from 1997 to 2007, reaching nearly two million. Cairo University alone has more than 200,000 students, yet its overflowing lecture halls can accommodate only half of the students enrolled in certain classes.
Low faculty salaries have exacerbated a problem whereby students that are not completely fit to receive university education are being taught by underqualified instructors. However, without a serious reallocation of resources, most countries in the region don’t have the means to significantly increase their higher-education budgets.
Both limiting enrollment and raising student fees are considered politically impossible now. But even radical higher-education reforms would address only one part of the problem.
Students also need jobs once they graduate, which requires major investment in the nascent private sector. In Tunisia and Egypt, countries where the president’s family members and close associates monopolized most resources and opportunities, there is some hope of opening up the economy. But the process will be long and fraught.
Deeper restructuring may loom in the distance. Right now, at universities in Egypt and Tunisia, the focus is on installing new leadership and applying the revolutions’ democratic ideals on campus. Egypt’s Ministry of Higher Education is also reportedly working on a proposed law that would set up a more democratic selection process for university and department heads.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education
April 17, 2011
Saudi Arabia
Colleges From Around the World Promote Their Campuses
Hundreds of colleges from countries around the world were in Saudi Arabia in April for a college fair aimed at recruiting full-paying students. In turn, the oil-rich kingdom, is looking to build its own higher-education system with cadres of overseas-trained academics.
According to a report from The Chronicle of Higher Education, institutions from more than 35 counties were represented — with British and U.S. institutions in particular taking up much of the space.
Currently there are approximately 120,000 students already studying outside the country, a number that the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education expects to double in the next five years. The vast majority of those Saudis studying abroad are doing so on full scholarships courtesy of the government, a fact that greatly increases the incentives for recruiting Saudi students.
Several dozen of the American college officials were in Riyadh for the conference and gathered beforehand for a reception at the home of the American ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James B. Smith. In remarks to the group, Mr. Smith emphasized that “you don’t have to be a big school to recruit students here.”
“What the King [Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz] wants are students spread throughout colleges across the U.S.,” the ambassador stated. He reportedly gave three tips to those trying to recruit students: emphasize family and safety, participation in student activities and the larger community, and talk about how the students could be ambassadors for their country.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education
April 20, 2011
New and Largest Women’s College Opens
In May, Saudi Arabia opened the campus of Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University, which, with an enrollment of up to 50,000, is expected to be the nation’s largest women’s institution.
The US$5.3 billion new campus of Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University, spread over eight million square meters (26 million feet) on the outskirts of the capital is planned as a car-free environment. It will operate a shuttle monorail train and electric buggies for internal transport, while solar panels stretched on the campus will reportedly generate 18 percent of the power needed for air-conditioning. The campus also boasts a 700-bed hospital and accommodation facilities that could lodge 12,000 students.
– Agence France Presse
May 15, 2011