Egypt
Facing Deteriorating Facilities, Egyptians Look Abroad for Study Options
As Egypt’s tumultuous transition period approaches a new crossroad, the country faces a deepening education crisis that threatens to leave hundreds of thousands of students behind their international counterparts.
Schools have repeatedly been forced to close since protests began in January 2011, with some losing as many as 100 days over the past 18 months amid political and security disruptions. While no recent statistics exist for the number of students leaving Egypt, experts say older pupils are increasingly seeking education abroad in less traditional destinations.
“Students who have the means to study abroad have traditionally turned to the U.S. or Europe for higher education,” says Sherif Samy, head of Misr Capital, the investment arm of Banque Misr, and former chairman of Skill Link, a Cairo-based career advisory service. “However, over the past 18 months we’re seeing our youth going to Dubai or Turkey to study, which tells me that they just want to get out of here because the future seems so uncertain.”
Spending per student over the past four years has been about 40 times less than in the United States, while teacher pay is also very low. GDP expenditure on education of 3.5 percent is also the lowest in the Middle East and North Africa, compared with Saudi Arabia and Morocco, which each spent approximately 5.7 percent of their GDP on education. Illiteracy, a problem for Egypt long before the 2011 revolution, is currently estimated at 30 percent nationwide.
– The Daily Beast [1]
December 16, 2012
Iran
Iranian Branch Campuses
A proposed new Afghanistan-Iran university to undertake joint research and engineering projects, announced by the two governments in December, is being seen as part of a broader Iranian strategy to counter its international isolation brought about by Western economic sanctions, reports University World News.
Iran reportedly has a large number of cross-border projects in the pipeline, in particular in Islamic countries. In addition to the recently announced Afghan-Iran university initiative, Iran is also establishing branches in Afghanistan of the state-run Payame Noor University [2] – which specializes in distance education – and a branch of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad [3] (FUM) in the Afghan city of Herat, to be called Khajeh Abdollah Ansari University.
Iran will also grant several hundred scholarships to Afghan students at Iranian universities, particularly for postgraduate study in the sciences and technology, and will establish study centers for Persian language and Islamic issues in Afghan universities.
FUM is Iran’s third largest public university and the largest research university in eastern Iran. It attracts students from Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, the Central Asian Republics, Lebanon, Syria, India, China, Thailand and other Asian and African countries.
Some Afghan officials and civil society activists have expressed discomfort at the increased politicization of universities and Iran’s growing influence on Taliban members and Afghan Shiites at universities in Kabul, according to regional media reports. Such concerns are not unusual, with regional analysts seeing a similar bid by Iran for influence in other countries.
In 2009, Syria agreed to set up Farabi University in the north-western Syrian port city of Latakia in conjunction with Tishreen University [4] – Syria’s third largest university – as an international branch of Iran’s Tarbiat Modares University [5], a postgraduate institution in Tehran.
Iran’s University of Applied Science and Technology, which has a number of branches in several Iranian provinces, has also been in the planning stage of opening branches outside the country. IRNA reported in recent years that overseas branches of Iran’s Elmi Karbordi would be set up in the Comoros and in Venezuela, and Tehran University [6] plans a branch in Lebanon. Branches of Payame Noor University would be set up in Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and the Comoros.
The private non-profit Islamic Azad University [7] has also expanded outside Iran, including in Dubai – where it caters for a large Iranian expatriate community – Beirut in Lebanon, Yerevan in Armenia and Zanzibar in Tanzania. New campuses are planned in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and reports also point to plans for campuses in Canada and Malaysia.
– University World News [8]
January 19, 2013
Israel
Controversial West Bank College Officially Upgraded to University Status
Israel officially upgraded the Ariel University Center of Samaria [9], in the West Bank, to university status in December. A day after the official upgrade, the heads of Israel’s public universities reiterated their opposition to the move by asking Israel’s High Court to block it.
Israel’s Council of Higher Education previously voted against the upgrade, citing academic, not political reasons. It said there was no justification for another university in Israel when others were already suffering from a shortage in faculty and research infrastructure.
– Jerusalem Post [10]
December 25, 2012
Saudi Arabia
Scholarship Students Barred from Entering Troubled Utah Bridge Program
The Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission [11] has banned Saudi students from entering a bridge program at Southern Utah University [12], designed to allow students with poor English skills to undertake ESL training while also taking a number of college courses before passing an ESL proficiency examination.
The Saudi Mission, which oversees and administers the King Abdullah Scholarship Program for students in the United States has cited complaints that the program has an “oversaturation” of Saudi students. Of the 182 students enrolled, 158 are Saudis, according to the mission, which is concerned that the lack of diversity negates the value of an international education. SUU officials say word-of-mouth endorsements have drawn Saudi students to its rural liberal arts campus. But the Saudi government wants its students to make up 35 percent or less of the students in any one program.
The mission’s ban comes as SUU is investigating allegations that its unaccredited ESL program tolerates plagiarism by students. Officials put an instructor on probation in November, and they have pledged to invite an accredited ESL program to review its performance.
– The Salt Lake Tribune [13]
December 2, 2012