Value of Higher Education to Palestinians

Value of Higher Education to Palestinians

Zajel / An-Najah National University    Palestinians value the pursuit of education greatly and have one of the highest enrolment rates in higher education among the countries in the region, whether living in the Palestinian territory now or living outside Palestine, in other countries.  As a matter of fact, Palestinians have contributed a great deal to the development of the Arab region. They are truly behind much of the development in the Gulf and in the development of neighboring countries, particularly Jordan. Wherever they went, because of their education, they have left their prints. They brought wealth and vast experience back to their country and this is the main source for their livelihood. Palestinians see the development of human resources as their major source of income. The number of Palestinians at work in the Arab countries, although dwindling right now, has always been very important for investment at home. When a Palestinian democratic statehood is created, and stability is established, then it is expected that the State will develop quickly because of the abundance of manpower qualified resources abroad which will be backstopping the development of the State. Imbalances in Current Trends Through presenting some statistics, I wish to show that Palestinian universities suffered for a long time from. imbalances between the number of students in the humanities and those in sciences in favor of humanities. This imbalance was attributed to the fact that Palestinian universities began their educational missions with humanities since they were less costly to establish and they required little expenses unlike sciences, engineering, pharmacy and medicine which need labs and other very costly requirements. Drastic measures have to be put to redress the current imbalances with respect to the levels of study of the higher education system of the Palestinian State. Currently we have about 36,000 students in the universities but only 9,000 students in technical and community colleges. With regard to the fields of studies, we can see that university graduates over the last 15 years represent 81 % in humanities, education, Islamic studies and business, 15% in basic sciences, and only 4%> in technical fields. Enrolments in community colleges show only 25%, in technical fields and 75% in academic fields, This is a very serious matter for the Palestinian authorities concerned. The challenge now is to deal with these imbalances. First of all it requires commitment of the State to finance higher education as a pillar of its statehood, and second it requires the private enterprise to link itself with the higher education institutions for developing the skilled human resources it requires. This link should be a partnership for training, retraining and research and development. So higher education in the Palestinian State should be innovative and not only for social status, but also for employment opportunities and the development of the Palestinian enterprises. However, we should not underestimate the work already done. To create eight universities and twenty community colleges under foreign occupation is really a miracle, and no one should minimize the efforts which were made. But now, we should try to divert to new frontiers of disciplines' with emphases on science, engineering and technology schools, and to create the endogenous capacity of the technical know-how. For this we need resources, particularly from the European Community, to overcome these imbalances in higher education.                                                      . Higher 'education in a Palestinian State should address transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary education. The problems facing humanity in the next millennium cannot be addressed through mono-disciplines with the traditional rigid walls. It should be flexible, based on a wide range of complimentary courses with various levels of credit hours exchangeable to allow the students to move across borderlines of specialization, according to the needs of market for professionals. The development of new technologies particularly in the information age requires the development of new brain­ intensive manpower resources. The same goes for genetic engineering and biotechnology which require a. new interdisciplinary approach to cope with scientific achievements and development. Also, addressing the environment, population, poverty and management of human and natural resources requires a new style of graduates. Education programmes should be developed as diversity of packages, in term of short and long courses and in-service education and training for adults. Evening courses to utilize the university infrastructure could be opened for those who are engaged in work during the day-hours. Also there is a need to develop graduate studies in relevant fields. Since they account, at present, for only 1 % of the university student population, research cannot be done effectively with this small percentage. There is a need to expand the graduate programme of each university, and to encourage research among faculty members. Funding resources should be made available to encourage research, incentives should be created to promote research activities by reducing teaching load and promoting sabbaticals, travels to present papers, and attend symposia. Relevance For the development of a truly democratic Palestinian State, higher education should be engaged in this development. Self-reliance and capacity building of human resources to the state is crucial. So Palestinian higher education should not develop after any model in adjacent Arab States. It should be endogenous to the geography and demography of the Palestinian State. It should be based on quality and merits, but should respond to the future needs of the state. It should stress the development of the limited natural resources particularly water resources and their management. Also, it should stress on biotechnology for intensive crop and animal production. It should stress on the exploitation technology of mineral resources. And above all, it should stresses the new frontier areas to create the knowledge-based and brain-intensive information technology - cybernetics and small and medium industries. Management of natural and human resources is considered our weakest point in the Arab world. Public and private enterprise management for the high and medium levels should be stressed in creating the state-of-art Arab management schools. The art of management is considered the most important tool in overcoming the edge of competition in the market place.