Education

“We spotted that most of those who work in interior design in Syria are intruders on the field,” May al-Assar, CEO of Stad. “They hadn’t really got a proper education which is specialized in interior design, they are mostly non specialists who depend mainly on their work experience.” That is when the decision was made to create the Stad Center (al-Monfared) for learning and development, a Syrian pioneer in the field of interior design, with plans to get into the field of garden design.

The last year in the Syrian school system comes with a social, physiological and physical tax. A demanding year and a time of crisis for students entering the baccalaureate season, students and their families brace themselves for the final test that determines the shape of their futures. Rituals to contain the crisis are passed on semester to semester; here’s more of what goes on behind the scenes.

 

Kinan Afif Bahnassi was born in Damascus, Syria. An alumnus of Northeastern University's College of Engineering, Boston, his collegiate studies had been centered upon a dual concentration in Information Systems and Business Management. The qualitative and quantitative proficiencies that Kinan had gained within these disciplines at Northeastern University had been complemented by a global reach. As a Candidate for a PhD in Management Information Systems Boston, he is focusing on Customer Knowledge Management, which is the impact of knowledge management in the corporate customer relationships. Now the national project director to the Labor Market Database project for the UNDP in Syria, and a lecturer at the University of Kalamoon, he speaks to FW: Magazine about his decision to return to Syria, the project he has been asked to head, and the relationship between himself, his father, and his country.   

John Waterbury leaves AUB in glory

How does it feel to be an ex-president; has the world changed? Under your tenure (1998-2008), a total of 16,879 students have passed through the walls of AUB as graduates, and the university’s long-standing place and reputation were restored, through relentless efforts to give AUB a face-lift. How was this achieved and what were the benchmarks laid out in 1998 and achieved—or not—by 2008?
Buildings are important but the most important elements of any university are the quality of the faculty and the quality of the students. Poor faculty will drive away good students, and poor students will drive away good faculty. AUB has increased the quality and the size of both the faculty and the student body over the last ten years. We have grown from about 500 faculty members to 600 and from 5200 students to 7100 while at the same time demanding higher standards for both. We have vastly increased the quantity and quality of faculty research output. We aspire to become a world class research university, and the re-introduction of PhD programs will help us achieve that. Critical phases in this process were the academic review of 1998/99, lead by some thirty North American academics, including four Nobel laureates; achieving accreditation of the entire university through the Middle States Association of the USA in 2004; accreditation for a number of our programs including accreditation of our hospital through the Joint Commission International; and the raising of millions of dollars in endowment for special research programs and faculty chairs. Alongside these efforts was our Campaign for Excellence, 2002 to 2008, which aimed to raise $140 million for capital projects and endowment. In fact we raised over $170 million, of which well over $20 million has gone to endow financial aid at AUB. We currently have under way or planned nearly $200 million in building projects on our campus and at the Medical Center.

Valentine’s Day, a novelty in Syria until the late 1980s, was brought to the Damascenes by the Damascus Community School (DCS), better known as the American school in Syria. On Valentine’s, Syrian students at DCS would exchange flowers in the morning, and attend a chaperoned dance party by night. Red roses for love, white for friendship, and pink for affection—blasphemy as far as many Syrians watching the scene from afar were concerned. It has now become not only a norm, but also a much-anticipated social and commercial event, where entire streets are colored in red, and roses at Damascene street vendors sell like hot cakes every February 14.

Alan G. Merten, the president of George Mason University, gives an exclusive interview to FW:

Since becoming the university’s fifth president in 1996, Professor Alan G. Merten has taken George Mason from one success story to another. The university has gained international acclaim, although it’s a young school by world standards, for the grand emphasis it places on applied research and science. Under the leadership of Alan Merten, George Mason has emerged as a vital center of cultural, academic, and athletic activity for the entire Northern Virginia-Washington DC region. As a result of Merten’s relentless efforts, an estimated three million people visit George Mason per year to attend lectures, athletic events, workshops, and theatrical productions. George Mason has also developed innovative teaching and research programs in the humanities, public policy, and biological sciences. This summer, Merten came to Damascus, where he met with Syrian academics, intellectuals, and gave an exclusive interview to FW: discussing ways at pushing education forward in the Arab World. 

A jesuit message of management welcomed by HIBA

Born and educated in Lebanon, Tony Gibeily studied at Saint Joseph University, obtaining his PhD in strategic management. He worked as a private management consultant with several companies in Lebanon and meanwhile, began to teach at Saint Joseph University (SJU), rising to become Dean of the Faculty of Management. Gibeily sat with FW: to talk of heading a major department in one of the oldest universities in the region, and its role in assisting newly established private universities in Syria.

Tomader Fateh

SJU is one of the oldest private universities in the whole Arab region. It is still widely distinguished for its educational contributions and fitted curricula. Can you brief us on its history and main activities? 

As you very well know, SJU is a very well-renowned and well-positioned university in Lebanon, in the area and far beyond. The Jesuits founded it in 1875, and it continued to grow stronger, and now has 12 faculties (Medicine, Law, Engineering, Economics, among others) and its additional 22 specialized institutions (including “Hotel Dieu de France”).

Eighty-three Syrian students have completed their master’s and 37 have inished their PhD’s at the ICARDA research center, says ICARDA information specialist, Ravi Prasad.
 Some 20 master and PhD students are currently pursuing their research at the center.
 Over its 30 years of existence, ICARDA has trained 15,610 agricultural scientists.
 Of these, 9204 were scientists from Arab countries, who participated in long-term, short-term and individual non-degree courses.
 As many as 364 young Arab scientists completed their individual degree training for master’s and PhD degrees.
 In addition, 73 Arab students are currently pursuing their master’s and PhDs.
 Most of the participants in ICARDA training programs occupy leading positions in their respective countries, or play effective and important roles in enhancing the contribution of research to agricultural development in Arab countries.
 An example is Mona Noureddine, who obtained her PhD training through the support of ICARDA and is currently the FAO Representative to China.
 Abdel Nabi Farous, who participated in 6 month training in Tel Hadya, is the Director General of the Jordanian Research Organization (NCART).
Mahmoud Solh, the director-general of ICARDA, explained to FW: about achievements and activities of the Aleppo-based reearch center.
 ICARDA has been working in Syria and the entire region for over 30 years, could you mention some of its achievements over those years? ICARDA worked for improving agricultural productivity in Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) with a concentration on providing food security, alleviating poverty, and crop improvement of barley, lentil, chickpea, and faba bean.
 We also worked on improving the nutrition and productivity of sheep and goats, as they are important for livelihood.
 ICARDA owns a large gene-bank that is comprised of the germ-plasms collected from the indigenous races existing all over the region.
 Technology development should be supported by capacity building.
 What did you do to help researchers improve their performance? We recognize the necessity of having well-trained staff and well-equipped research tools to achieve the best results.
 To this end, ICARDA organizes training courses for scientists and researchers to meet the specific needs of the national programs.
 From 1977 to 2006, we had 15,000 participants from 100 countries and from different schools of education.

When the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Aleppo supported its staff’s needs with an international school, the city’s inhabitants had a golden chance to participate in an independent curriculum patterned after the best international standards in use throughout the world.
 ICARDA was formed after initial plans in Beirut were canceled due to the Lebanese civil war.

As changes both positive and negative enter the realm of Middle Eastern economies, those at the top need to learn how to stay competitive, and can do so with AUB’s Executive MBA program.

“I had the know-how and the market savvy, but I lacked the academic background,” says Adel Ajlani, general manager of Allied Business Co. “If I didn’t fortify the foundation and change, the future would be bleak, so I started to look at MBA programs.” Having started the business from scratch the year he graduated from Damascus University with a bachelor’s in engineering, he had seen his company grow from a two-person business to a 65 person strong corporation with chains of stores such as Guess and Momento selling gifts, gadgets, and fashion accessories. With growing competition and the changes already occurring to his company, Ajlani realized that if he couldn’t provide strong leadership, all his work would have been for nothing.
His business is not the only one being affected. Despite the ills of the world economy, regional business is doing well, with an estimated 300,000 new executive positions to be created in the GCC countries in the next five years, according to the McKinsey report of 2007. Closer to home, as Syria moves to a social-market economy, and the protections previously offered by a closed economy continue to disappear, businesses previously safe from external competition find themselves scrambling to keep national products on the shelves. “A lot of people are hiring consultants to protect their businesses,” says Ajlani. “But if you don’t believe in and create the need for the changes these consultants are recommending, if you don’t start with yourself, you’re going to have a very difficult time.”
Enter AUB’s Executive MBA program, created in 2004 to train the brightest brains in the region and equip them for the challenges that lie ahead. The program has produced 90 graduates, who have benefited tremendously from the program and have already seen an impact on their careers. “Four years ago, AUB recognized that most MBA programs prepared students for middle management, and there was a need for training in the top levels of management,” explains Riad Dimechkie, the program’s director. Essentially, the EMBA is designed to address the needs of a different group of people, typically with more industry specific experience and functional expertise. “We teach these executives to coordinate several functions, and get them thinking strategically and long-term.
“I chose an EMBA rather than an MBA because it works across a broad spectrum, and has a focus on general management,” agrees Ajlani. Executives become more effective by learning to identify issues inside and outside the company, and applying appropriate analytical techniques and organizational skills to solve complex business problems. When they can develop strategies, apply resources effectively, and build organizational capabilities, as well as develop business insight and self-confidence, they’re ready to assume leadership roles in their organizations.
“AUB’s EMBA is much more rigorous than similar programs in the region,” insists Dimechkie. “Our screening process is much more thorough, the course work is more demanding, case studies are more challenging and class discussions are held to a high standard thus mirroring the rigors of top rated MBA programs.” AUB maintains its position as the regional leader in teaching effective management concepts with direct relevance to the needs of MENA executives and their organizations, by ensuring that graduates make a significant impact on their organizations and their communities while they are still enrolled in the program.
AUB also compares favorably to international programs, with more expertise in the issues affecting the region. The program applies western concepts of business on regional companies, and deciphers what translates well here and what doesn’t, then adapts them to the issues facing the region. “I considered HIBA and AUB, but I decided that a university with 140 years experience had to trump an institute that was just getting started,” says Ajlani, citing another reason many might consider the commute to Beirut. “The course truly offers a complete picture, giving you a background in finance, management, operations management, marketing, strategic planning and leadership, you really find your whole potential as a business person and the way you analyze situations has changed.”
Diversity and valuing differences is built into the EMBA program. Students come from different industries including banking and insurance, consulting and auditing, healthcare and pharmaceutical, manufacturing and service, hi-tech and low-tech, telecommunications and construction, media and advertising; from different functions such as general management, sales and marketing and advertising, manufacturing, HR, IT; from different educational backgrounds of business and economics, engineering, architecture and science, liberal arts, medicine, law; and from different types of organizations working in manufacturing and service, multinationals and mid-sized regional and small entrepreneurial companies, for profit and NGOs.
“We try to put together classes of diverse ethnicities and genders, and we also try to vary the size of the organizations the students are coming from,” asserts Dimechkie. “We also have students from non-business backgrounds, such as engineers, doctors, economists, and others. I prefer to have people with no business academic background, because it makes it easier to integrate the different functions and skills that they bring to the table, and they’re more willing to see where the links are, where the functions overlap rather than why they’re separate.”
“The program requires a minimum of 8 years of experience, and if you spread that across 20 students, you have 160 years of combined experience in one room, meeting for three intensive days every three weeks, sharing ideas from all these industries, and offering you a very diverse portfolio,” Ajlani adds. “The daily contact and exchange with these people is as important for the process as the actual classes offered.”
This program builds leadership skills through “actionable knowledge.” The emphasis is on applying lessons learned in the work place, and on providing the underlying conceptual framework for effective decision-making. One course being introduced to the program is “Judgment in Managerial Decision Making,” which will teach the executives how to recognize and overcome natural systematic biases inherent in so-called “gut feel “ decisions, which quite often could lead them astray.
“Our work with the EMBA helps the rest of the Olayan Business School as well,” says Dimechkie. “Our students are at the cutting edge of the business world, and we see the needs of the top levels of management from these corporations. We discovered, for example, a need for strong communications skills, including the ability to logically structure impactful reports and presentations that drive decision making. We teach executives how to structure reports and use charts and tables effectively. Communication skills are so important that we’re discussing increasing our emphasis on these skills in our MBA programs as well.”
The course work is designed to be taught over three day weekends every three weeks, and offers a condensed set of classes, which proves to be accommodating for executives still running their companies. Executive-students joining the program are taught by more than 20 distinguished faculty members. They also get the chance to interact with prominent world businessmen and CEOs such as Carlos Ghosn (Renault/Nissan), Fadi Ghandour (ARAMEX), and Ibrahim Dabdoub (National Bank of Kuwait) through EMBA’s lecture series.
“I’ve been completely overloaded for the past two years,” says Ajlani. “With my travel commitments to search out stock for the business, with my management duties towards the company, and with the classes and assignments I had to complete for the EMBA, I’ve barely had time for myself. Really, though, as much as you put into this course, you’re bound to get a multiplied return.”
The returns have been impressive indeed. Since his graduation last September, Ajlani has been able to apply all that he’s learned at AUB, and his company has undergone a complete restructuring. From the finance departments to the retails stores, everything at Allied has changed from top to bottom, with new, redesigned processes and a complete shift in strategy. “I’m glad I started the course two years ago,” adds Ajlani. “Looking at things in Syria in the long-term, changing from state to state, you need to be equipped so you can face the challenges of the growing competition.”
“The course is a transformational experience,” Dimechkie concurs. “It helps develop the executives’ skills, improve business acumen and judgment, and gives them the tools and self confidence to address business issues and provide the leadership to drive positive change.”

For more information concerning the program, visit the AUB website at www.aub.edu.lb, or contact Riad Dimechkie at rd28@aub.edu.lb