Education

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

In a land of unparalelled poverty and strife shines a beacon of hope. In Costa Rica, an Arab-descended professor offers South American students the chance to rise above, and exploit the natural potential of their land effectively and in an environmentally concious manner.

In the 1980’s, Central America was facing many urgent problems.  Seventy percent of rural families were living in poverty with rudimentary agricultural practices, and high population growth and low agricultural productivity was resulting in the desertion of small farmers to urban areas.  This was compounded by pressure to expand agricultural areas, extending into fragile ecosystems, like the humid tropics, resulting in deforestation rates of 400,000 hectares per year.  Political instability and war throughout most of Central America served to exacerbate the problems facing the region.  It was under these conditions that leaders in Costa Rica began discussing the creation of an international university dedicated to educating young men and women who would contribute to the reduction of poverty and environmental degradation in the rural areas of Latin America and to foster democracy and peace in the region, for which Costa Rica was an example.
Jose Zaglul, the president of EARTH University, explains how it all came about: “At the time, Central America was in the midst of conflict, with fighting in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama. I had gone to university in Lebanon, right before the civil war started and Costa Rica looked a lot like Lebanon. Costa Rica had abolished its army 50-years earlier and did not want to get involved in the conflicts. So it was decided to invest in education and establish an international university in Costa Rica using funds from US AID and the Costa Rican government. Its mission was to prepare young people from all over Latin America to be leaders, promoting change and sustainable development. This university would give them the skills they needed to influence their communities and take greater care of our planet. In order to accomplish this, the university was founded on four principles: scientific and technical skills; values and ethics; environmental awareness and social responsibility; and entrepreneurial mentality.”  
“We started with a $50 million endowment and a five-year operational grant that helped us start classes and pay faculty expenses. The land itself was bought with independent funds. I was elected president when we were still in the construction process, and my mission was for the university to reach out to poor people, to give them a solid education, and to return them to their communities in Latin America or elsewhere, as agents of change.”  

What started out as a small Faculty of Engineering and a population of 295 students has mushroomed to be-come Syria’s second largest university. Founded in 1958, Aleppo University (AU) now has more than 25 faculties, 152 departments, ten other intermediate institutes, six hospitals, and seventeen academic centers. On its 50th anniversary, AU seems to be getting younger—more spirited, alive, and dynamic than ever before. The University of Aleppo celebrates its Golden Jubilee on May 4, 2008, with events, workshops, and conferences, attended by delegations and presidents of 75 universities from Europe, Asia, and the Arab World. To cover more details of the Golden Jubilee, FW: interviewed Aleppo University President Mohammad Nizar Akil. A seasoned veteran at AU, Akil previously served as the Vice Rector of Academic Affairs, Vice Dean for Administrative & Student Affairs, and Chairman of the Pathology Department at the Faculty of Medicine.

After having been away from Syria for eight years without a single visit, my trip last July was a long anticipated opportunity to re-discover my homeland and reassess the reasons culminating to such a prolonged absence. It is often said that expatriates are lost between two worlds— incapable of establishing a proper home in either one.

 

With less than two weeks to go be-fore school bells around the Unit-ed States signal the start of the 2007-2008 school year, much attention will be focused on one particular school in Brooklyn, New York.

 

In so many ways, the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) is like any of its neighboring schools: it teaches math and science; physical education and art. However, this middle school has introduced a curriculum with a feature unique to any other school in New York: Arabic language and culture. In this city of 22 million, there are numerous schools focusing on particular themes, though few have generated as much controversy. Even before a single student was enrolled, labels such as «public madrassa,» «segregationist,» and “jihadi» were associated with the school.

A cross between the Wild West and a small, tidy college campus familiar to anyone schooled in the United States – this was my first impression of Kalamoon University as I drove into Dayr Attiyeh. The small dust-devils kicked up by the relentless winds sweeping along the Damascus-Homs highway died away as we entered the Kalamoon campus. The grand entrance into the university was dotted with handsome new trees and its median covered with a thick bed of green grass, newly mowed and vigorous, despite the brilliant and scorching sun of the Syrian badia. Professor Sami Moubayed, my host, leaned toward the windshield of his car and excitedly began pointing out each of the new buildings. To the left was a string of neatly painted dormitories, each four stories high. To the right began the administrative and classroom buildings. Our car stopped at a well tended quadrangle; workers were watering rose bushes and splotches of new lowers that seemed to have been planted only yesterday. In the distance several new buildings were under construction, accompanied by a shiny white mosque, the minarets of which had yet to be capped with their pointed tops.