Classes Start Three Months after Scheduled Semester Start Date
Classes resumed in Israel, January 20, after a three-month faculty strike that was days away from causing the entire semester to be written off. Universities plan to extend the semester to eliminate the summer break, thereby allowing for a full academic year. Faculty will receive a 24 percent pay raise, over two years, under the agreement signed with the government to end the strike.
Reform plans to dramatically increase tuition fees, which would help cover faculty pay increases, are still pending and offer the possibility for further disruption to university schedules. Students undertook a nationwide strike in the spring semester of last year after the plans of the Shochat report were released.
- Jerusalem Post
January 20, 2008
Qatar
Durham, Qatar Strengthen Academic Ties
Qatar University and Durham University signed a memorandum of understanding in January to strengthen academic ties between the two institutions. The memorandum will strengthen research links between the two universities, initially in international relations and Islamic studies but extending also into education, geography and environmental sciences, law, finance and energy.
- The Peninsular
January 15, 2008
Saudi Arabia
Quarter of Government Budget Allocated to Education
Unveiling the Kingdom’s largest ever budget in December the government has earmarked a total of US$27 billion for education and training from a total budget of $120 billion. Saudi leader, King Abdullah said more than a quarter of the new budget has been set aside for human resource development including higher education and technical and vocational training.
“The budget will also boost scientific research and technological development,” the king said referring to financial allocations made for new research centers at universities. Special allocations have also been made to train teachers, develop academic curricula and improve education infrastructures, with more than $10 billion set aside for building schools, universities and training centers and institutes. The king also disclosed plans to establish a number of new hospitals, health centers, medical colleges and university hospitals.
- Ministry of Education
December 11, 20007
New Saudi Research University Appoints Inaugural President
The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia’s much anticipated $10 billion university, announced the appointment of its first president, Choon Fong Shih. Mr. Shih, currently president of the National University of Singapore (NUS), takes on the task of developing from the sand up what the Saudi government hopes will become one of the world’s leading research institutions. The university, known as Kaust, is scheduled to open in September 2009.
Until recently, Saudi Arabia spent less than a quarter of 1 percent of its gross domestic product on scientific research. King Abdullah provided $10 billion of his own money to start the new institution, making it the sixth richest university in the world even before it opens. Despite the institution’s wealth, Mr. Shih will face the difficult challenge of recruiting top faculty members to one of the most socially conservative countries in the world, and balancing the freedom and openness required for a world-class research university with the more traditional forces in Saudi society.
Kaust officials hope that Mr. Shih will achieve similar results in Saudi Arabia as he did in Singapore, where he was able to transform NUS into one of the world’s top 50 universities by building global networks for the university and links with industry. His support for revenue-generating research and his work with the Singaporean government on economic development will be helpful in accomplishing one of the new university’s stated goals of helping to diversify the Saudi economy away from dependence on oil, as well as creating new jobs for the 30 percent of Saudi youth who are currently unemployed.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education
January 13, 2008
United Arab Emirates
French University to Open in Dubai
Dubai Education, a subsidiary of Emirates Investment and Development, announced in November that it will partner with France’s Université Lumière Lyon 2 in establishing L’Université Française de Dubai. The new university campus will be located centrally in Dubai and is expected to begin classes in the upcoming academic year. Université Lumière Lyon 2 already has a collaboration agreement with the Canadian University of Dubai (see December issue), which was the first venture of Dubai Education.
- MENA
November 27, 2007
“Academic Medical Center” to Host Harvard Medical School
Dubai Healthcare City, in January launched Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Academic Medical Centre, a huge academic education complex comprising multiple institutions, at the heart of which will be the state-of-the-art University Hospital, slated to open in early 2011. The other medical education facilities in the complex are Harvard Medical School Dubai Centre Institute for Postgraduate Education and Research, Al Maktoum Harvard Medical Library, and Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research.
- Gulf Today
January 22, 2008
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