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Former HE minister strives to improve universities From a small, windowless room on the first floor of Baghdad’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Abdul Razzaq Al-Issa oversaw Iraq’s universities and research activities during a difficult period when the Islamic State controlled large swaths of his country, writes Amr EL-Tohamy for Al-Fanar Media. “I was fully aware of the task’s difficulties and challenges, but I was independent and not affiliated with any party,” Al-Issa, who was in office from 2016 to 2018, said in a recent telephone interview. “I had a business plan and a clear strategy that was not subject to any partisan favouritism.” ....
Universities struggle to survive after a decade of war Ten years into a civil war that has forced more than half of Syria’s population to flee their homes, the country’s higher education system is broken and Syrian universities are struggling to survive, according to Syrian academics and other education experts, writes Samar Kadi for Al-Fanar Media. Speaking at a recent online workshop titled “Higher Education in Syria After a Decade of War”, organised by the European Union-funded EDU-Syria programme and the German Academic Exchange Service, the panel members said Syrian universities faced a myriad of challenges. These include poor infrastructure, outdated curricula, unqualified teaching staff, absence of research resources and academic freedom, insecurity and lack of funds and international exchange. ....
Self-censorship in higher education – An untold problem According to an online survey by Al-Fanar Media and Scholars at Risk, about 75% of professors at Arab universities practise academic self-censorship in their professional lives – stopping themselves from saying what they believe to avoid getting in trouble, writes Rasha Faek for Al-Fanar Media. Considering the restrictions that officials in some countries place on what professors can say or do, actual levels of academic self-censorship could be much higher. This suggests that freedom of expression, one of the hallmarks of university education, is at risk “The tendency to self-censor, which these key findings suggest, also matches with the data of the latest edition of the Academic Freedom Index, where the MENA [Middle East and North African] region scores lowest in global comparison,” Benjamin Schmäling, director of the regional office in Amman of the German Academic Exchange Service, wrote in ....
Academics protest plan to give ministry more control Al-Fanar Media. “The new draft law establishes a contracting system to regulate the relationship between professors and their university, subjecting it to the logic of the market and privatisation in a way that undermines the principle of academic freedom and the independence of scholars,” said Jaouad Rabaa, a member of the National Office for the independent Karama (‘Dignity’) Coordination of Research Professors, in a phone call. Rabaa, a professor of political science and constitutional law at the University of Ibn Zohr in Agadir, explained that the draft law granted “supreme” authority to the university’s administrative body and the ministry to control teachers’ financial benefits and work privileges. The bill also grants the ministry of higher education powers to amend the curricula and intervene in research professors’ work, says Rabaa. ....