Egypt Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

For several centuries the Middle East was socially, economically, and technologically advanced. One of the reasons for this was its people’s appreciation of and openness to knowledge creation and dissemination. This trend lasted from the 8th to the 13th centuries (Aubert and Reiffers 2003). Knowledge became the most important and determining factor for economic growth. The impact and contribution of this wealth of knowledge were felt and appreciated across different sectors and disciplines and acknowledged beyond the region and around the world. However, things changed drastically in the 18th and 19th centuries following the Industrial Revolution. In the 21st century, with oil exploration and an economic boom in some parts of the region, investment and attention was redirected to building state of the art infrastructure in various sectors, including education and health, as Middle Eastern countries prepared to engage with and integrate in the knowledge society. To date, investments allocated to sectors such as education, information infrastructure, research and development, and innovation have been insufficient in most Middle Eastern countries (Aubert and Reiffers 2003), when compared to other regions, including emerging economies. However, increasing attention is being paid to these sectors compared to past decades and more concrete achievements have been realized in recent years. Education in the Middle East has consistently faced a variety of challenges. According to the World Bank, the quality of education in the region is falling behind other regions and needs urgent intervention and reform in order to address issues associated with unemployment (Gavlak 2008). Although the knowledge ecosystem, including awareness, education, training, and lifelong learning, represents a cornerstone for development and growth in the Middle East, there is still a lot that needs to be done before the education sector becomes a catalyst for economic production and development and a driver for societal growth (Holmes 2008). Moreover, higher education plays an invaluable role within society because it creates additional opportunities for development and provides knowledge transfer for students and other stakeholders, and promotes change, creativity, innovation, and progress (Wilkens 2011). Over the last few decades successive governments in the region sought to expand enrollment to formal education and improve the quality and efficiency of education service delivery (Welmond 2006). Education and lifelong learning should be considered as the invaluable foundation upon which most economic and social strategies are based, and policies and directions are built. Therefore, education should be made a top priority if the national objective is to realize effective and sustainable economic development and growth in the long term. Building a knowledgeable society remains an integral platform for creating jobs, improving standards of living, and becoming more competitive as a nation. The impact is usually realized following years of strategic planning in which synergies are established among key stakeholders in the economy. Moreover, modern education and lifelong learning policies are increasingly being defined in terms of economic development, growth and timely global competition (Shirazi 2010). The key challenges facing the Middle East could be summarized in three main points: an increase in educational disparity within countries; a constant decrease in the quality of education, despite an ongoing increase in per capita education expenditure; and the mismatch and growing divide between market needs, in terms of capacity and skills, and what the educational system has to offer in terms of output (UNDP 2002). Moreover, there are factors that impact higher education such as, but not limited to, regional and international geopolitical challenges, student mobility and the impact of emerging technologies, in addition to socioeconomic development and growth.