Egypt
Egyptian Higher Education as a Model for Africa and Middle East
According to Dr Alaa Ibrahim of the American University in Cairo [1], higher education in Egypt is set to become a model for Africa and the Middle East as a result of the popular revolution that removed former president Hosni Mubarak and his regime from power and ushered in a new era of improvements.
Speaking at the at the World Conference of Science Journalists [2] in Doha in late June, Ibrahim said, “higher education has already been revamped, and changes are already being seen in the way of operation.”
Reflecting on changes that have happened since the revolution, Ibrahim said Egypt now had credible leaders with interest in advancing higher education. The country’s state-run universities began classes for the second term of the academic year in March following mid-year vacations, which were extended due to the pro-democracy protests that started in January.
Among other things, Egypt’s government has increased science funding by almost a third and has promised up to 50,000 new jobs in industry for young researchers, mainly to help with practical projects in the private sector. In May, the cabinet approved a budget for the 2011-12 financial year that increases research spending to US$90.5 million, from US$66.5 million last year. Furthermore, Amr Ezzat Salama, Egypt’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, has announced the government’s intention to grow spending on research ten-fold in the next three years, from to 0.23 percent to 2 percent of gross domestic product.
– University World News [3]
July 10, 2011
Oman
1,500 Undergraduates to Study Abroad on Government Scholarships
Oman consular advisor to the Higher Education Minister Saeeda Abdullah Al Subhi said recently that the Omani Ministry of Higher Education [4] is looking to place up to 1,500 undergraduates in quality and affordable tertiary institutions in selected countries abroad. Presently there are about 500 Omani students in public and private universities worldwide.
“We want to establish direct contact with the universities to ease the process of placing our students later,” she said, adding that her delegation, in Malaysia at the time, was keen to learn about Curtin Sarawak’s (Malaysia) academic programs, fees structure, enrollment procedures and campus facilities.
– Borneo Post [5]
July 8, 2011
Iraq
Themes from a Conference on the Future of Higher Education in Iraq
The Institute of International Education [6] (IIE), in cooperation with IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund [7], held a conference on advancing higher education in Iraq from June 22-24 in Erbil, Iraq. More than 140 Iraqi scholars, Iraqi public university presidents, vice presidents, and deans, Iraqi government officials, U.S. Embassy officials, and international experts participated. Five additional conferences in Iraq are planned for the next three years, with the next one scheduled for January 2012.
The goals of the three-day conference were 1) to provide Iraqi participants with an overview of U.S. higher education, with an emphasis on how “modern university systems” evolve and the factors that fuel change; and 2) to provide useful tools and resources for capacity development in the Iraqi higher education sector.
Key themes that emerged from the conference include:
- Scholars and institutions articulated the challenges they face in working to reform the Iraqi higher education system, and voiced their vision that education is the keystone for rebuilding Iraq in both the short and long term. Using an analogy from the medical field, the Vice Dean of Al-Mustansiriya University [8] in Baghdad stated that “Iraqis are in the stage of ‘diagnosing the problem’ and are working toward the ‘treatment’ stage.”
- Educators voiced a strong conviction that higher education reform is essential in Iraq, and that other higher education systems can be seen as models with the potential of being applied or adapted (but not copied) to the Iraqi context.
- Universities need strong and independent governance to ensure quality, maintain financial stability, and prevent potential corruption.
- The role of university presidents is central to managing the competing demands of constituents and political leaders.
– Institute for International Education [9]
June 24, 2011
Saudi Arabia
Global Research University Moves Forward
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology [10] opened in 2008 and now sits on an 8,900-acre campus an hour and half from the city of Jeddah. The aspiring world-class research graduate university, which has been created at record speed with help from a multi-billion dollar endowment from King Abdullah, is the only co-educational institution in the country.
Kaust, as it is known, also faces a unique challenge. It must convince the world that through a combination of wealth and vision, it can flourish in one of the most restrictive countries in the world. Many believe that the next year will be a critical one in its development.
The sprawling campus, that includes residential neighborhoods, commercial areas, and social and recreational facilities, is nearly complete, and most of the labs are operational. Members of Kaust’s fledgling community—professors, administrators, and students—say they must show they can succeed by publishing original research, attracting more Saudi students, and recruiting more top-notch faculty.
While Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s wealthiest countries today, the kingdom is overwhelmingly dependent on oil for its revenue. But if current population growth and consumption patterns continue, by 2025 the country could be consuming 70 percent of its oil domestically. There is a growing realization that a diversified private sector, built on science and technology, is necessary to ensure a post-oil future and to create jobs for millions of young Saudis.
The university is organized around nine research centers, which focus, for example, on advanced membranes and porous materials, plant-stress genomics, and solar and photovoltaics engineering. The work of all these centers feeds into three fields key to Saudi Arabia’s future: solar energy, water desalination, and drought-resistant crops.
Kaust has built itself quickly through academic partnerships with top universities, including Cornell [11], Stanford [12], Texas A&M [13], the University of Oxford [14], Institut Français du Petrole [15], the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology [16], and the American University in Cairo [1]. Much of its international faculty has been drawn from these partners or their networks. Kaust currently has about 85 faculty members, coming in near-equal proportions from the West, the Middle East, and Asia; it plans to employ about 225 in total.
Many of the academics there say they were drawn by the chance to design their own labs from scratch, with funding to acquire the latest equipment and assemble research teams of their choosing. The university’s shared core labs also contain an impressive array of equipment, from a “supercomputer” to some of the world’s most sensitive microscopes. The university has spent $1.5 billion on equipment. Yet while the university has been able to attract established senior academics ready for another challenge before retirement, as well as promising young faculty taking what they hope will be a career-making gamble, it remains difficult to lure tenured professors in the middle of their careers.
The university has also made every effort to attract a bright cohort of international students. Admission comes with free housing, insurance and a yearly round-trip ticket home; students receive $20,000 to $30,000 stipends. The institution is particularly concerned with attracting Saudi students since one of its main goals is to create a new scientific elite for the country. Saudi students make up between 15 and 20 percent of about 300 students now at Kaust. The university plans to eventually enroll 2,000 graduate and 1,000 postdoctoral students.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [17]
June 26, 2011
Women: A Strong and Growing Presence in Saudi Higher Education
According to a recent article on Mideastposts.com, an estimated 56.6 percent of Saudi students in the kingdom and abroad are now women. This includes about a quarter of the 110,000 Saudi students studying abroad under the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program [18].
Despite the growth of female participation in higher studies, integration into the Saudi workforce is still proving difficult. Teaching is still viewed as the traditional female Saudi job, and although such female students are returning home with top-quality degrees in a range of subjects, it seems many are still finding it difficult to obtain jobs with Saudi companies, especially in any management or decision-making roles. The current unemployment rate among Saudi women is 28 percent.
Aware of this hurdle, Saudi authorities have eased some of the more restrictive laws, such as lifting gender-mixing bans in private workplaces. But still, many women are looking to other Gulf countries or the West, hoping for job prospects that will better match their degrees – and allow them to work toward their career aspirations.
The Ministry of Higher Education [19] is apparently aware of this trend, and according to the Mideastposts.com article, it recently notified its cultural attaches to investigate and take legal action against scholarship students who seek permanent residency or citizenship in the countries where they are studying. According to the article, the ministry will suspend the scholarship and demand a refund if students do not return home.
– Mideastposts.com [20]
June 2011
United Arab Emirates
Private Indian University to Open in Dubai
Amity [21], one of India’s largest private universities, is preparing to open a Dubai campus in September, adding one more to the city’s growing number of international branch campuses at Dubai International Academic City [22]. Amity chancellor, Atul Chauhan, said the United Arab Emirates was one of 25 countries in which the university plans to set up over the next four to five years.
In India, Amity, a family foundation run as a non-profit institution, has four campuses with more than 80,000 students. The Dubai opening is a sign that the sector may be picking up after a quiet couple of years. According to Dr Warren Fox, head of higher education at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority [23], the university regulator, the recession starved many universities of the resources to expand into the region.
Campus offerings will include first and second degrees in a range of science and engineering fields, from forensic science to solar and alternative energy, including nuclear science, nanotechnology and aerospace engineering. Competition will be felt not least by its Indian rivals, BITS Pilani [24] and Manipal [25] universities, which are the biggest in the emirate and charge similar fees.
– The National [26]
July 3, 2011
Successful Scottish Campus Plans to Triple Intake with New Campus
Heriot-Watt University, Dubai Campus [27] is planning to increase student capacity threefold with the construction of a new campus, the ground-breaking for which took place in July. The Edinburgh-based university, in Dubai since 2005, plans to increase enrollments at its Dubai campus from a current capacity of 1,500 students to 4,500 students.
The new campus – set to open in September 2011 – will allow the university to expand its offerings to include architectural engineering; interior design; logistics and supply chain management; applied psychology; food science; safety and health; financial risk management; actuarial science; graphic design; multimedia; international law; and computer sciences.
– Heriot-Watt News Release [28]
July 8, 2011
Smart Chips to Prevent Academic Document Fraud
More than 30 universities and educational institutions in the United Arab Emirates have adopted smart-chip technology that uses radio frequency identification (RFID) to combat document fraud.
The institutions, as well as the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research [29], have partnered with smart technology solutions company Amricon to implement the Smart Document Attestation Solution.
Amricon officials explained that the RFID label is placed on university certificates at the time they are issued to students. The information stored in the labels can be read by the attestation department at the ministry, enabling the verification of certificates using the Smart Document Reader without communicating with the issuing university.
– Gulf News [30]
July 18, 2011