HIGHER EDUCATION IN MENA

Higher education systems worldwide face constant pressure to change. Amid a shifting economic and social landscape and rapid technological change, universities carry the complex mission of producing and nurturing the minds that will advance their nations.

Globalization makes this change inevitable. The growth in student demand challenges institutions not only to provide equitable access, but to balance massification with quality. Job market requirements are pushing universities to revamp their offerings and become more responsive, while new technology continues to reshape the higher education ecosystem — raising real questions about the future of universities and their role in society.

Although most countries and regions face these same pressures, the challenge is more acute for higher education systems in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA). The region has seen a massive expansion of student enrollment over the past decade, one that has also revealed serious deficiencies in many countries’ systems — compounded by an uncertain economic and political outlook.

MENA is an amalgamation of countries that once shared a common past but whose paths have since diverged, shaped by differing political and economic trajectories. The region spans high-income, oil-producing economies to low- and middle-income economies, and includes a number of fragile states. That range makes MENA a complex region — and that complexity is well reflected in its higher education.

MENA FACTS

  • MENA is home to roughly 6% of the world’s population, with an average median age of 25, underlining the region’s young population.
  • Student numbers have risen dramatically over the past decade, with average enrollment growing significantly since the mid-2000s.
  • Youth unemployment across the region remains among the highest in the world.

MENAHIGHERED.NET : A KNOWLEDGE-SHARING PLATFORM

Higher education in MENA is in flux, and strategic reform is needed. National, regional, and international stakeholders are well aware of this — countless projects and initiatives are underway, policies are being debated, and resources are being produced across the region.

The objective of MENA Higher Ed is to shed light on all of these developments. To do so, MENA Higher Ed works to:

  • Curate news and spread the word about events and key projects taking place across MENA
  • Analyze policies and research that are of benefit to stakeholders involved in higher education in the region
  • Collect data and key indicators, building a unique database and set of tools for browsing, extracting, and visualizing higher education data
  • Document and highlight best practices by engaging directly with practitioners and experts in the region

MENA Higher Ed is an independent online knowledge platform that curates news and resources, and analyzes topics related to higher education in the MENA region.

By doing so, MENA Higher Ed aims to be a one-stop shop for everything related to higher education in the region with data at the core of that offering. Where reporting elsewhere is often fragmented or anecdotal, we ground our coverage in official statistics and original datasets, so readers get not just the story, but the numbers behind it.

WHO’S BEHIND THIS

MENA Higher Ed is run by Laïla Beghi. The idea for the platform grew out of her work as a World Bank consultant on the MENA University Governance and Quality Assurance Program, where she worked directly with ministries and universities across the region and saw firsthand how fragmented and hard to access reliable higher education data can be.

Have a tip, a correction, or a dataset you think we should cover? Reach out at menahighered@gmail.com.

We hope you find menahighered.net useful.