Roadmap for producing life-ready graduates

While welcomed by some academics, a roadmap aimed at helping Arab states’ universities to climb global rankings, prepare their graduates for the workplace and improve working conditions for staff, has been criticised for being out of touch with reality and overlooking implementation challenges.

The roadmap was approved at the International Arab Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education held at the University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia, from 8-10 November.

The conference was a refereed scientific conference focused on higher education quality and falls under the auspices of the Association of Arab Universities.

The roadmap calls for a greater focus by institutions on international university rankings and how to improve their positions in them. It also says universities need to design practical programmes for students focused on planning for the future, communication skills, positive attitudes towards learning and work, management skills, use of technology, teamwork and time management skills.

The roadmap also calls for a greater focus on professional skills, especially those of a technical nature, to enhance the quality of graduates and enable them to keep pace with modern technological developments.

External talent

It states that more efforts are needed to attract and retain external talent at local and international levels through the creation of specialised departments in higher educational institutions in order to create a climate that encourages innovation and creativity.

The roadmap highlights the need to create a system of rewards and wages that encourages qualified staff to work optimally. It suggests improving the working conditions of university faculty members by facilitating their participation in decision-making, meeting their social, economic and psychological needs, and reducing professional pressure.

The roadmap also calls for modern teaching methods in light of the current use of e-learning technologies, and for assistance from specialists in the field of distance education, as well as foreign expertise to develop the educational process.

Member of the conference organising committee Professor Hanene Boussi, head of rankings and strategic analysis at the University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia, told University World News the attainment of such goals set out in the roadmap was “not without its challenges”.

Such challenges include the need for a fundamental shift in mindset and practices. There were also financial and resource constraints, he said, as well as a mismatch of educational programmes and labour market needs, technological barriers and varying levels of digital literacy.

“Addressing these multifaceted challenges demands a concerted and sustained effort, collaboration among stakeholders, and a steadfast, long-term commitment to the continuous improvement of higher education,” Boussi said.

Evidence base

Dr Bassel Akar, associate professor of education and director of the Center for Applied Research in Education at Notre Dame University in Lebanon, questioned the evidence base for the roadmap goals.

“This is because the adopted higher education initiatives appear to overlook challenges that young people face accessing higher education, developing the professional knowledge needed … after years of disrupted learning from school closures … [and] ensuring basic living needs while learning in higher education,” Akar told University World News.

“Those interested in developing roadmaps should first commission studies that gather experiences and visions of youth in secondary education, higher education and graduates in the labour market to ensure the relevance and sustainability of any roadmap,” Akar said.

Adil Mohamed Ali, head of the Institutional Development Programme at the Sudanese Environment Conservation Society and a coordinator with the United Nations Development Programme, or UNDP, told University World News one of the challenges facing implementation of the roadmap was: “the shortage of the right policies in the Arab countries that encourage the adoption of these higher education initiatives and support [for] them with adequate financial resources”.

He added: “Another challenge is an intrinsic one: the presence of the so-called ‘old guard’ or ‘change resisters’ that might delay the implementation of the recommendations”.

Ali explained: “To curtail these challenges, the higher education institutions have to conduct concerted lobbying and advocacy campaigns directed towards decision makers, members of the parliaments, education-focused civil society organisations and the media.”

Implementation challenges

Professor Ahmed El-Gohary, the former president of the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology in Alexandria, told University World News that planning the roadmap “is an easy process because it took place, mostly, in closed offices”.

He said that implementing a modernisation programme in higher education in the Arab world was “the problematic part”, as it needs deep management skills as well as flexibility and decisive action.

“Among the key steps that Arab universities should take … include establishing ‘permanent’ Curriculum Reform Committees to review curricula and programmes,” he said.

Such committees should have the freedom to innovate and suggest new interdisciplinary programmes, apply accurate quality assurance measures to correct any deviation and to assure continuous, non-stop, enhancement of the universities’ updated programme, he said.

It was also important for universities to keep track of alumni in order to evaluate the impact and the values of innovative programmes on both the graduate’s market share and the satisfaction of the industry, El-Gohary said.

Life skills as an ‘excellent objective’

Professor Hussin Jose Hejase, scientific and academic consultant to the president of Al Maaref University in Lebanon, said the aim to give students “life skills” was an “excellent objective”.

“However, for its implementation, universities’ leadership need to review what characteristics they believe their graduates should possess, including a commitment to lifelong learning,” Hejase said.

With reference to the talent pool, Hejase indicated that “national universities need to give special attention to managing local talent first and then involve industrial talent, migrated talent, and foreign talent”.

He explained: “It is essential to offer the same respect to local talent versus foreign talent and to instruct the foreign talent that they are there to serve and improve local talent (if needed) and the local community.”

Hejase said the quality of performance among staff was “tied to the sound governance of universities where transparency, standardised policies, and total engagement of staff are considered”.

With reference to e-learning, Hejase said Arab universities have to “review and modify their current strategies related to teaching and learning”, and at the same time be transparent about what type of university they are: teaching university, teaching and research university, or research university.

Professor Sami Hammami, former vice-president of the University of Sfax in Tunisia, told University World News the roadmap was “an important step in the implementation of a global strategy for the modernisation of higher education in Arab universities.

“This initiative which aims to raise the quality of higher education does not hide the existing failures in our universities in [terms of] improving the soft skills of our students so that they can enter the job market with more confidence,” Hammami said.

“However, the educational side should not be neglected, especially since digital tools currently play an essential role in the dissemination and transmission of knowledge, while keeping in mind the openness of universities to their environment, and the involvement of institutions in sustainable and inclusive development (reducing inequalities and disparities),” Hammami said.

Rankings

On the issue of rankings, Hejase said: “Universities have to be cautious of international university rankings because as we look at Arab top-ranked universities, they are relying on foreign talent extensively, as compared to local talent, to play the game!”

Ali argued that Arab universities should focus on the quality of the education they provide, the quality of their teaching and tutoring staff, and the quality of the research they are doing, rather than rankings.

Akar said that while he thinks rankings are important, unfortunately, some universities’ approaches to being in the top rankings “undermine their mission of learning, teaching, research and service excellence”.

Akar explained: “So, rankings should be coupled with accreditation mechanisms that are transparent to the public.”

Application of learning skills

Abdellah Benahnia, a part-time international researcher and professor at the Superior Institutions of Science and Technology, an associate college of Cardiff Metropolitan University in Casablanca, Morocco, told University World News: “I personally believe that the Arab nations should focus on the application of learning skills as they are in desperate need of developing and reviving such skills.”

Benahnia explained: “While the nations are in need of technical skills, this should not be at the expense of the humanities majors. There is a lack of ethics, principles, philosophy, and all kinds of art. They need to spread the notion of high intellectualism via pure art and humanity.

“Societies do not need robotic people who know nothing outside their field of expertise; they need a real human doctor, engineer, teacher, and so on.”