Boost for Arab higher education

Education will be more easily available to all

The first pan-Arab open university is being set up with its headquarters in Kuwait and is expected to start enrolling students next year.

The project, which is being funded by a regional development institution founded by Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, aims to increase the provision of higher education in the region.

An agreement on establishing the university was signed in Kuwait by Prince Talal, Kuwaiti's Education Minister, Yussif al-Ibrahim, and a senior official of the British Open University, which is to provide technical assistance and accreditation of degrees.

It is hoped that 5,000 Arab students will be admitted in the first year, rising to 75,000 in 10 years.

Flexible study

The university will have branches in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

It will be set up in coordination with and funding from the Arab Gulf Programme of the United Nations Development Organisation.

Part of the organisation's stated mission is to support and finance educational projects targeting special and less privileged groups, particularly women and children

Like Britain's Open University, the Arab version will offer flexible education, which will be of benefit Arab women who will be able to study from home.

Workforce

This will help further a trend across the Arab world, where women have won more schooling and jobs.

The percentage of girls attending school in Oman, for example, has more than quadrupled since the 1970s.

In Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, more women attend university than men - although this is partly because men tend to go abroad for their education.

And in all Arab countries where statistics are available, women's share of the workforce has at least doubled in the past 20 years.