YEMEN

YEMEN: Minister threatens to close private universities

Yemen's private universities only have preliminary licences and these could be withdrawn if institutions fail to comply with legal requirements, Higher Education and Scientific Research Minister Saleh Ali Ba Surrah warned last weekend, writes Abdul-Aziz Oudah for the Yemen Observer.

"We don't want cabins, apartments or buildings; we want to see integrated structures that are competitive with public universities and not just a clone of them," the Minister said at a three-day conference on "Challenges of Higher Education and Academic Accreditation in the Third World", held in Sana'a.

"Before the revolution, there were no universities in the entire country. However, there are 300,000 students in Yemeni universities today," he said, adding that the Ministry is working to complete the establishment of an academic accreditation council with quality assurance. The ministry is also restructuring the administrative organisation and network links between all Yemeni universities.
Full report on the Yemen Observer site