|
From Hydrocarbons to Higher Learning: The Arabian Peninsula’s Education Boom
April 11, 2008
Alex Usher, Vice President, Educational Policy Institute
It’s not exactly a secret that there’s a lot of money floating around the Middle East. What’s not as well known is how much of the region’s oil and gas profits are being ploughed back into higher education. EPI President Scott Swail and I have had the pleasure of spending the last week and a half in the area looking at – among other things – just this issue.
To western eyes, the amounts of money being dropped are staggering. The King Faisal Foundation in Riyadh is dropping a cool $300 million to create the Al-Faisal University (see below), the country’s first co-educational institution, and one which is meant to replicate the rigorous curriculum of the top American undergraduate schools. King Abdullah has spent $10 billion (9 zeros, ladies and gentlemen) of his own money to endow the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The Emir of Qatar has built a staggeringly large “Education City”, along with an associated Science and Technology Park, to start a culture of research and science in the tiny Gulf country, with Newfoundland’s College of the North Atlantic taking on the job of running one of the region’s first technology-focussed community college, the CNA-Q. The Emir has set the budget for the project at “whatever it takes” – and he means it. Similarly-named educational “cities” are also opening in nearby Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Al Faisal University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)
The sums being thrown around for these projects are staggering, and it is easy to come to the conclusion that these countries are trying to buy their way into the world’s top tier of universities (it is often noted with a mix of embarrassment and envy that the entire Arab world has only produced one institution in the Shanghai Jiao Tong Top500, whereas Israel has seven). But there is more to it than that; these educational expenditures in many ways represent a major gamble on these countries’ futures.
The oil and gas wealth of the Saudi and Gulf countries has created some massive contradictions. Oil wealth has permitted the monarchies of these countries to reinforce their position by paying their citizens massive sums of money; nearly all citizens are entitled to some sort of government job and salary where little if any work is required. Jobs, in fact, are often seen as a form of welfare. Native entrepreneurs are rare, and a phenomenal amount of labour is supplied by expatriate labour. Education and medicine are both considered “service-level” jobs to be outsourced to foreigners – to say nothing of manual labour. Engineering and management are really the two main professions considered fit for locals. What this means is that roughly half the residents of Saudi Arabia are not citizens; in the Emirates and Qatar, citizens account for only one-fifth or one-sixth of the population.
This is presumably fine as long as the oil and gas lasts; however, when it runs out these countries have a bleak, bleak future. And that is why all of these countries are racing to develop their own human resources in anticipation of the day the oil runs out.
Their strategies differ: Dubai’s Innovation City has more or less set up a free-for-all for foreign institutions who wish to set up shop in the region and charge whatever prices the market will bear. Abu Dhabi and Qatar have carefully selected foreign partners to help run their Education cities; the larger Saudi Arabia, which has a much older and larger higher education sector, is interested in hiring foreign faculty and partnering with foreign institutions on things like curriculum, but has absolutely no interest in allowing foreign institutions on its soil.
Virginia Commonwealth Universities'
Qatar Campus (VCU-Q)
Money is one thing, patience is another. Institutions of higher education require critical mass and a culture in order to develop quality. One can’t simply plunk Harvard down in the desert and expect Nobel Prizes to follow. Quality is not just about curricula; it is above all about culture and people, and these take time to nurture. If there is one thing that will derail the oil states’ plans for higher education, it is unrealistic expectations about what all this spending can achieve in the short term. The payoffs, if they happen at all, will take decades.
Paradoxically, while oil states’ wealth is what is paying for this blooming of experimentation in higher education, it is that same wealth that presents some of their greatest obstacles. Institutions in the region acknowledge that one of their greatest challenges is the lack of motivation among some local students – after all, why work hard if your parents have already bought you a Mercedes and a government job awaits regardless of results? The biggest test of all for higher education in the region is to create a culture of aspiration; a culture in which people strive for excellence in both the private and public sectors, and come to prosper through the fruits of their own ingenuity rather than though bonus cheques obtained only earned through a fluke of geology. While conservative elements in these countries might wish to stress the practical vocational skills these new institutions provide, the truth of the matter is that the most important output of these institutions will be culture.
That leaves the institutions that have come from across the sea to partner with local governments in the delivery of this education revolution in a somewhat awkward spot. Traditional culture means a great deal to the people of the region; but a modern, (mainly) western culture of intellectual openness is key to success in post-secondary education. So these institutions have to negotiate their position very carefully.
Intriguingly, institutions are delivering on their cultural mission at least as much through extra-curricular events as through classroom education. Student clubs and student activities are considered a key way of providing students with a real “western” education, as it brings innovations of community and management experience. And, of course, there’s sports. While most of the region is football mad, CNA-Q has gone its own way by introducing hockey to the region. Though the school’s team has yet to include any Qataris, It’s “cool moose” mascot (pictured with moi) was integral to the team success in the 2007 Desert Cup, in which it triumphed over other ex-pat teams dotted around the region.
While results in hockey come quickly and definitely, in education the search for outcomes is long and elusive. For all the money being thrown at these schools, the key ingredient is time. As our colleagues at CNA-Q told us, after six years in the region, instructors are really starting to see a change in the student culture – more self-reliance, more initiative, and better self-motivation. There’s a long way to go, but provided patience prevails, there’s no reason to think these Arab states won’t prevail eventually.
Some might see these kind of educational investments as some kind of “threat” to the West and its supremacy in matters educational. These people should calm down. The whole world wins when new countries adopt modern higher education systems. It’s an amazing thing when a medium-sized college from Newfoundland can help kick-start an educational revolution half a world away. But that’s what’s happening, and the people of Newfoundland should be proud of it.
Have a good weekend.
PS. Check out Scott Swail's blog on our travels and travails in the Middle East at Nine Days in Riyadh.
|
