2008 Occasional Papers - AUK

college work and have inadequate preparation in English.Limited access to remedial, academic help for weakerstudents and a shortage of student advisors exacerbatethe problem. Students frequently live with their parentsor other family member and commute from their family’shomes where a relatively high standard of living isenjoyed. Students appear to have ample time to focus onstudying and to be free from financial worries. However,faculty members complain about lax student attitudestowards attendance, their studies and that plagiarism,cheating on exams and grade negotiations are rife.Until now, there have been few incentives for academicexcellence; e.g. securing a well-paying job after graduationis customarily more associated with wasta, a practice thatuses personal or influential connections of a family memberor associate. However, traditional avenues of employmentsuch as the government are tapering off. When pressed,students, especially males, often concede that they worryless about securing a good job than obtaining a degreeto improve their social status or enhance their marriageprospects. In sum, studying often does not appear tooccupy an important role in the students’ daily lives andfamilial obligations are often cited for not studying.3.0 Literature Review:3.1 Factors Leading To Western Liberal EducationDemandCurrently, the Gulf region is experiencing tumultuousgrowth in secondary and post secondary private schoolsand universities. Private universities represent about 27%of the 149 university affiliated with the Association ofArab Universities. Many of the current and future startupsof private universities are envisioned for the Gulf.The demand for imported Western liberal education hasincreased in the Gulf because of several contributingfactors. First, from the 1970’s onwards, the region sawthe demise of the Egyptian influenced system and a shiftto the credit point system prominent in the Americaneducation system (Mazawi, 2004). Secondly, the qualityassurances for training and research are seen as higherin US universities than elsewhere. Thirdly, even before9/11, the relative numbers of Arab students studyingin the United States were on the decline resulting in acumulative 30% drop from 1999 to 2002 (Derhally, 2003).Taken together, these factors have increased the demandfor local western liberal education as Middle Easternstudents find it harder to pursue studies in the West.A less examined, but increasingly important reason for theprivatization of higher education in the Gulf is that theregion’s established public institutions of higher educationare finding themselves unable to accommodate theirburgeoning, young populations, (especially expatriates)under the mounting shortages of professional educatorsand limited public resources dedicated to higher education.The brunt of future investment associated with highereducation will likely be borne by the private sector owingto its flexibility in coping with the changing demographics,shifting budget priorities of Gulf governments, privatemarket needs, and because of the potential for growingfinancial returns. For example, one Kuwaiti educationcompany boasting 27,000 students at all levels, reputedlyearned about $35 million in fiscal year 2004.Finally, educators have been imported from other countriesto the Gulf owing to historical shortages of local teachingprofessionals. Various nationalities including Egyptians,British, Indians, and others have preceded U.S. citizensas administrators and teachers. With the increasingparticipation and presence of the U.S. in the Gulf, comesincreased impetus and means for synchronizing educationin the region with the political and economic system overwhich the U.S. currently holds hegemonic presence.One American consultant in the United Arab Emiratesnoted that a new university ,”is designed to reflect thetypical design of colleges and universities in the US…tofacilitate transfers to US institutions and entrance to USgraduate programs.”(Mazawi, 2004)3.2 Transferability of Western Liberal EducationThe quest for educational change, from a Gulf Arabperspective, might be summarized as how to bestmodernize Gulf education without disrupting orchanging its traditional social structures. Implicit in thisview is that elements in western liberal education canbe appropriated without having to resort to a wholesaletransfer. Education transfer, to use an analogy, becomesa smorgasbord of sorts where the desired elements areselected and less desirable ones are left off the plate. Theanswer to the implicit question as to whether culturalelements act as a facilitating or restraining agent tomodernization seems to stand on end. Wolfgang Zapf(2004) in his examination of modernization process inthe context of the Middle East suggests that since there isno unified Islamic front, it can be expected that there willbe different kinds and rates of adoption of technology(and by inference, education). However, this observation25