Advocating for Arab higher education

In ancient times the Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Salah Khalil’s ambitions are slightly more modest. The founder of the Alexandria Trust, a London-based charity, Khalil wants to “restore the excellence in learning and culture in the Arab region” by starting an online publication devoted to covering higher education, writes DD Guttenplan for The New York Times.

Al Fanar – Arabic for The Lighthouse – will be formally introduced on 3 March in Dubai. The publication’s editor will be David Wheeler, a 25-year veteran of The Chronicle of Higher Education, the US publication on which Al Fanar will be based.

“Universities are really one of the fundamental building blocks of society, but in many Arab countries, they are weak building blocks,” said Khalil in an interview at the trust’s office. “We want Al Fanar to be a place where universities in the region can connect. We also want to nurture a generation of Arab journalists with a serious interest in writing about education,” said Khalil, who graduated from the University of South Carolina before returning to Egypt to run his family’s chemical business.
Full report on The New York Times site