The State of Higher Education in Syria Pre-2011

Abstract

Higher education will play a key role in rebuilding Syria – a country torn apart by more than seven years of war and destruction – and will be crucial to rebuilding both the lives of those who have remained in Syria and of those who will return. It is our hope, as members of the joint Cambridge and Syrian team who undertook this project, that the report will contribute to that reconstruction by informing the debate on future reform. The purpose of this project is threefold: • To assist displaced Syrian academics living in Turkey (henceforward known as the Syrian research team, or co-researchers) by conducting a collaborative enquiry with colleagues from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, in order to build the co-researchers’ capacity by introducing them to, and engaging them in, a qualitative study of higher education in Syria. • To facilitate the continued contribution of Syrian academics in exile to addressing the challenges facing Syria • To inform strategic planning on the future of Syria’s higher education sector, by providing a background study on higher education in Syria in the lead-up to the 2011 crisis