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Reform of Higher Education in the Arab World

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Abstract

Because reform of higher education is inherently politically dangerous, with ramifications reaching well beyond the educational sphere itself, we must ask how policy reform might come about.

This contribution argues that change is occurring because it is largely crisis-driven. The best-known instances of painful reforms in the Arab world came in response to the structural economic crises of the 1970s and 1980s. Leaders at that time, and today, were willing to implement reforms that shattered social contracts because the alternative—business as usual—appeared to be even worse.

The impetus for educational reform is derived from the on-going economic crises. In particular reforms will try to respond to the dangerously high levels of unemployment, above all youth unemployment, that characterize the Arab world. The inability of Arab youth to find suitable employment is the result of an educational system characterized by outmoded pedagogy, insufficient public funding, and inappropriate training for the twenty-first century work place. It is argued here that leaders in the Arab world realize, above all after the uprisings of 2011, that this situation can be regime-threatening.

I explore the reform challenges under the following rubrics:

  • governance and finance

  • education for the job market

  • quality assurance

  • incompletion rates

  • research/R&D

  • regional cooperation

  • information technology (IT)

Keywords

Arab uprisings Civil service employment Demographic dividend Education reform Governance Informal sector IT Job mismatch Private sector Public policy of reform R&D Top-down reform Regional programs Youth bulge 

Abbreviations

AFD

Agence Française de Développement

AOU

Arab Open University

BAU

business as usual

CMI

Centre for Mediterranean Integration (Marseille)

EBRD

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

ERF

Economic Research Forum (Cairo)

IFI

international financial institution

IHL

institution of higher learning

ILO

International Labor Organization

IMF

International Monetary Fund

IRCAM

Institut Royal de Culture Amazigh (Morocco)

IT

Information Technology

KPI

Key Performance Indicator

KSA

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

LMD

license, master, doctorat

MENA

Middle East and North Africa (includes Iran but not Turkey)

NGO

non-governmental organization

PJD

Party of Justice and Development (Morocco)

R&D

Research and Development

RORE

rate of return to education

SME

small and medium enterprise

SSA

Sub Saharan Africa

WB

World Bank

WEF

World Economic Forum

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.American University of BeirutBeirutLebanon

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