Higher education trends to watch in 2017

At the start of 2017, a selection of scholars and experts share their views on the major trends expected to impact higher education in the Arab world’s 22 states, which includes 10 countries in Africa.

Nasser Mansour

Egyptian higher education expert Nasser Mansour, Director of the Centre for Science, Maths and Technology Education, Graduate School of Education Exeter University, United Kingdom:

The Arab universities suffer from broad educational challenges including quality, a critical mass of users, access, public communication and relevance. Additionally, the universities suffer from a skills gap that leaves many of its graduates unable to utilise their education in the labour market.

One of the key products and agents of change, socially and politically in the Arab region during the Arab Spring, was the use of social media. If social media can help to facilitate social and political change in very complex regimes and in very short time frames, this raises a question about the potential of using the social media in higher education in the region.

Educational and social technologies can offer Arab universities broader and deeper knowledge transfer. Social media technologies have the capacity to assist learners in gaining the 21st century skills needed for the labour market and the knowledge society, by supporting knowledge construction and enabling conversation, articulation and opportunities for teamwork, networking and collaboration.

In this sense, perhaps, the most pressing challenge for higher education in the region is to engage in debate about how best to utilise social media in appropriate ways that hopefully can help meet the demands of the labour market and knowledge society.

Juma Shabani

Juma Shabani, former director of development, coordination and monitoring of UNESCO programmes with a special focus on Africa:

The education trends that will impact African universities in 2017 emerge from commitments made recently by major stakeholders at the continental level. These include:

• • The need to expand access to higher education, particularly through increased use of ICT and e-learning delivery modes.
  
• • The production of new knowledge required to support development programmes including through the expansion of PhD training programmes in relevant areas of sustainable development.
  
• • The revision of curricula and strengthening of pedagogic capacities to produce high-quality human resources in areas corresponding to the needs of the world of work.
  
• • Enhancement of quality and quality assurance of institutions and programmes in order to promote mobility and ensure international recognition of qualifications.
  

These trends will be achieved meaningfully only if African countries invest adequately in universities, and if teaching and research capacities are enhanced and universities join major research and innovation networks to ensure exchange of resources and good practices.

Narimane Hadj-Hamou

Narimane Hadj-Hamou, Founder and CEO, the Center for Learning Innovations and Customized Knowledge Solutions, United Arab Emirates:

Arab higher education sector continues to face many challenges including increased demand for widening access, improved accountability, innovation and stronger alignment with national strategies and regional skills and competencies. The sector also faces funding constraints in a number of countries and higher education institutions. Factors that will have the most significant impact on higher education in the Arab region for 2017 and beyond include:

• • Improving graduates' skills and ensuring a deeper understanding of market needsby applying competency based learning and strengthening academic-industry collaboration.
  
• • Supporting research and innovation in universities and improving the quality of education at all levels, strengthening and enforcing standards and considering the role of accrediting bodies in enforcing continuous improvement and ranking of universities.
  
• • New forms of technology-enabled learning such as online learning, hybrid or blended learning and the adoption of the flipped classroom concept. This ICT development implies that Arab ministries of higher education will need to consider and establish means for recognising and accrediting new forms of learning at a wider level.
  
• • The Arab Spring and the political instability in many Arab countries will continue to impact student participation, increase student mobility and influence the brain drain of intellectuals and academicians, a trend that peace and stability in the region will help to overcome.

Khaled Daoud

Khaled Daoud, consultant to the vice-president and chief academic officer, Qatar University, Qatar:

The skills gap between university graduate and employer needs is widening worldwide and in particular in the Arab world. This issue needs to be tackled by promoting interaction between employers and universities

The relationship between employers and universities needs to move away from the offering of places for internship and a few weeks of training to a formal partnership with universities.

The introduction of experiential learning and dual industry-university programmes will allow universities to be more accountable and to be real contributors to economic and social development.

Muhammet Demirbile

Muhammet Demirbile, associate professor of educational technology, Süleyman Demirel University, Turkey:

Higher education in the Arab world is undergoing a period of significant change driven by a number of political, cultural, economic and technological factors. The trends will affect every aspect of university provision, including the environment in which universities operate.

Internationalisation will continue to develop rapidly in order to develop mature internationalisation agendas that incorporate research collaborations, recruitment, and capacity-building.

In keeping with the trend towards globalisation, higher education will see greater international student recruitment and study abroad, international research collaborations and international expansion in the form of branch campuses.

Technological innovations such as big data analytics, digital preservation, e-learning, mass digitisation and open access to peer-reviewed scholarly research will significantly shape both research and teaching within universities.

Fauzia Shamim

Fauzia Shamim, professor and coordinator (female section), English Language Center, Taibah University, Saudi Arabia:

A trend that seems to be on the increase in higher education institutions in the Arab world is the use of English as a medium of instruction both at undergraduate and graduate levels. English is generally introduced in the absence of any clear language policy regarding the use of English vis-à-vis Arabic, the majority language.

This trend may be detrimental for the quality of students’ learning of content subjects, but may eventually lead to the de-intellectualisation of the Arabic language. To address the situation, the following is proposed:

• • A national language policy outlining the status of the two languages geared towards maintaining the status of Arabic as an ‘academic’ language in the country.
  
• • At the institutional level, planning and implementation of English as a medium of instruction needs to be supported with clearly defined strategies and implementation procedures, so that the use of English does not negatively impact students’ learning.

Hania Sobhy

Hania Sobhy, Fernand Braudel Postdoctoral Fellow, European Commission Marie Curie COFUND Programne, Fondation Maison des Sciences de L'Homme (FMSH), Paris, Institut de Recherches et d'Etudes sur le Monde Arabe et Musulman (IREMAM), Aix-en-Provence:

According to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index, terrorism continues to rise, with over 32,000 people killed in terrorist attacks in 2014, the highest number recorded. Seventy-eight percent of all deaths and 57% of all attacks occurred in just five Islamic countries, namely, Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria. Among these, Iraq continues to be most affected by terrorism, with 9,929 terrorist fatalities, the highest ever recorded in a single country.

To fight terrorism in the Arab states, a rigorous inclusive education reform process should re-orient curricula away from the focus on divisive identity issues and critically open students to diverse local and global issues.

Arabic language textbooks should draw on contemporary Arabic literature, instead of novels about jihad and conquest, and more readings should be framed in relation to local constitutions and universal values. Social studies curricula should focus on public health, environmental and social issues, with courses on ‘local and global development issues’. More inclusive and balanced history curricula should introduce courses on 'world history and civilisations' including 'contemporary Arab and Muslim history'.