Education goes global

Geoffrey Gresh looks at how Middle Eastern countries are reaching out to improve their reserves of knowledge.

The latest agreement signed between New York University (NYU) and the Abu Dhabi government to construct a comprehensive liberal arts campus in Abu Dhabi symbolises the globalisation of higher education that has exploded across the Gulf in recent years.

NYU joins a growing list of prestigious US and other western universities to establish campuses or academic initiatives in the Gulf, including Cornell, Georgetown, Texas A&M, Harvard, George Mason University, INSEAD and the Sorbonne.

The most recent petrodollar windfall has enabled Gulf countries to engage in strategic national education reform that seeks to improve higher education systems that are currently foundering, and in some cases non-existent. One major component of this reform includes importing already established universities from around the world to the Gulf for the benefit of local Arab populations and national governments.

The globalisation of higher education in the Gulf comes at just the right time. According to the 2003 United Nations Arab Human Development Report, 270 million Arabs have fallen behind other regions in the “acquisition of knowledge.” Only approximately 10,000 books were translated into Arabic over the last millennium compared to the same number that are translated annually into Spanish. Additionally, the report notes that only 18 computers exist per 1000 persons in Arab countries, compared to the global average of 78.3 computers per 1000 persons. The urgency of this report has resounded across the Gulf, leading oil-rich nations to embark on a spending spree to bridge the knowledge gap.

Qatar is one of several natural resource-rich Gulf countries dedicated to improving higher education. Ten years ago, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, led the charge to improve higher education in the Gulf by inviting several American universities to become residents in the new 350-acre Education City in Doha. Virginia Commonwealth University was the first to arrive, establishing an arts and design program in 1997. Several years later, Education City, headed by the Qatar Foundation, provided the Weill Cornell Medical College with an $8 billion endowment to open a medical teaching college.

Following Qatar’s lead, the United Arab Emirates also allocated major resources to reform higher education. In 2007, the Abu Dhabi Ministry of Education operating budget was estimated at $1.43 billion ($Dh 5,235.1 million). Additionally in the UAE, the Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, the largest private foundation in the Arab world with a US$10 billion endowment and named after the current Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, signed a monumental agreement with the UN Development Program (UNDP) in support of knowledge. The deal is worth US$20 million and will seek to assess the quality of higher education in the Arab world. Dubai also recently completed a US$3.27 billion, 25 million square foot International Academic City designed for colleges, universities, and research institutes.

Even in Saudi Arabia, a state seen as opposed to innovative education reform, the government tripled the Ministry of Higher Education’s budget to US$15 billion in recent years. Further, in 2006 Saudi King Abdullah launched his US$7 billion “Knowledge Economic City” project that will eventually house 150,000 people, including the world’s top entrepreneurs and knowledge-based industries. At the same time, he approved the establishment of King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST), a research graduate institute that will have relative autonomy over its curriculum and operations. KAUST received US$10 billion as its start-up endowment.

Gulf countries are following a world trend in the globalisation of higher education that seeks to establish a global university network spanning the globe. But is this recent explosion of universities and academic initiatives sustainable in the Gulf?

Successful historic precedents of importing American-style university systems to the greater Middle East region have been set with the establishment of Turkey’s Bosphorus University (formerly Robert College) in 1863, the American University in Beirut (AUB) in 1866, and the American University in Cairo (AUC) in 1919. Formed under the influence of the American missionary tradition, these universities are some of the best in the region today.

The current education environment in the Gulf is quite different from Istanbul, Beirut, and Cairo of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but some similar fundamental questions remain about the dilemmas of importing foreign higher education models into the region: How will local populations respond to the major influx of US-run universities and research institutes? Will Gulf countries be able to continually attract top-tier academics to fill positions in an increasingly competitive regional hiring environment? Will the current political dynamics of the Gulf, including the Iraq War and acrimonious US-Iranian relations, remain stable enough for the future sustainable development of higher education?

It is only a matter of time before we come face to face with the answers to these questions. Certainly, the current trend of higher education development in the Gulf is a step in the right direction toward modernisation, innovation, and the spread of knowledge. If the historical successes of AUB, AUC, and Bosphorus University are any sign of what is in store for the future of current Gulf education development, the Gulf will become a leader of cutting-edge trends in higher education. Yet, such a heavy reliance on external institutions and partners to drive internal reform still begs the question if this is genuine reform, or merely transplantation. If the Gulf countries do indeed embrace these various education reform initiatives and adapt them to their respective cultures, it is hoped that they will one day become future beacons of knowledge and modernity on the world stage.

About Geoffrey F. Gresh

Geoffrey F. Gresh is a PhD candidate in International Relations and Assistant Director of Diplomatic Training Programs for the Program on Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilisation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

An historical precedent

The idea of foreign universities establishing footholds in the Middle East is not an alien concept. The American University in Beirut is an excellent example an institution that has demonstrated extraordinary longevity.

Opening with a class of 16 students on December 3 1866, the structure and character of the university was based on the American model. Since its inception the university has operated a remarkably forward-thinking policy of inclusion, throwing its doors open to all those who wished to learn there regardless of creed or colour.

Over nearly a century and a half, the university has developed and expanded adding everything from a school of nursing in 1905 to a Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences in 1954, By 2002, the university had awarded over 66,000 degrees. A fine demonstration of multi-national co-operation.