Feeling the change

Light morning breeze, perfumed with the smell of freshly cut grass, amplified with the echoes of hurried steps. It is the start of a new day on the campus of the University of Kalamoon (UOK) in Deir Atieh, about 80 km north of Damascus.

07:55 am: The hallways are filled with hustling students rushing for their class-rooms. Quick ‘hellos’ are exchanged. Some students gather around the never ready instant “express” coffee machine trying to get a jolt of caffeine before embarking on a long day, working their brain cells in class.

Professors rally through the crowds pulling behind their laptops, filled with PowerPoint presentations for their classes. The professors’ suitcases also carry state of the art academic books in English being this year’s—or at worst—last year’s edition. These books are supported with web sites that offer links to the most re-cent case studies in the world.

Posters hang around campus about up-coming events for various clubs and student societies. The social club is pre-paring for a debate, the business club is hosting a speaker on campus, the astronomy club is getting ready for a field trip to watch the stars, and the environmental club is distributing flyers about raising awareness regarding recycling.

An article has been published in MOON (the university newspaper) about the business school making a trip to the Unit-ed Arab Emirates where students visited Microsoft, the E-government project in Dubai, and the American University of Sharjah. Another article talks about the Food and Science Department taking its students on a field trip to DELTA, a food processing company on the outskirts of Damascus. An article outlines the ‘heroic’ efforts of the university’s basketball team for a comeback and winning the national championship of private universities in Syria. Another article talks about a newly established center on campus called KPCS (Kalamoon Placement and Career Services). The center offers professional advice to students regarding their summer internships, career planning, resume writing, and job interviewing.

What’s going on? This is the new labor of Syria getting ready to join the ranks of their colleagues in the region. Not only joining but also posing as direct competitors for qualified talent in the Syrian job market and that of the entire region. Only about eight years ago, when GSM companies started operating in Syria, the two operators had to import talents from neighboring countries like Lebanon and Jordan due to lack of qualified personnel in Syria. Private banks, which went into operation nearly four years ago, faced similar problems and resorted to similar solutions: they imported qualified managers from neighboring countries.

That is now a thing of the past. Shortly after coming to power, President Bashar al-Assad passed a law allowing private universities to operate in Syria, after many years of a state monopoly over higher education. Four years later, the first graduating class is getting ready to meet the real world. Certainly, one could imagine how anxious these students are to get out there. Some are looking forward to continuing their higher education and obtaining a Master’s Degree, others want to join prestigious private sector companies in Syria. Only a few want to go to the Arab Gulf looking for a better opportunity. Only a handful are planning to join their family businesses. This new generation of graduating students carry within their dreams new ways of global thinking and local acting. They received the latest knowledge and participated in numerous group projects, presentations, and research, during their undergraduate studies.

It is now up to the Syrian private sector to believe in these graduating talents and give them the opportunity to excel in their professional careers.

As for what’s next for these newly established private sector universities, it is a must for them to start building research centers, leadership centers, entrepreneurship centers, and career centers to complete—and polish—the university experience in Syria.

When I was last on campus at 07:55 am, breathing the brisk fresh morning air, smelling the freshly cut grass, listening to the echoes of hustling students to their classrooms, I could not help but to get mesmerized and high on hope and aspiration for a bright future for Syria. Yes, this is the new fresh spring in Syria and it definitely smells promising.