Bulletin: Extracting Lithium from Seawater in Qatar, Testing High School Graduates in Egypt
A Focus on Qatar
In our new bulletin, Al-Fanar Media brings you a selection of our most recent stories, prominent news of higher education in the Arab world, as well as a glimpse of cultural events, podcasts, and opinions.
Over the past years, the Al-Fanar Media team has produced many stories on Qatar. Today, we highlight several stories from our coverage. We bring you a glimpse of how a controversy over the choice of Qatar to host next year’s World Conference on Bioethics, and how a scholar in Qatar responded.
We also look back at our reporting on how Qatar witnessed the transformation of a foreign university’s branch campus into an independent local institution, strengthening the country’s higher-education system.
Also in this bulletin, we bring you news of a scientific advance by researchers in Qatar that has important implications for the harvesting of lithium from seawater, and a commentary by a Western academic in Qatar who reviews his experience in teaching the history of slavery in an innovative way.
Mohammad El-Hawary
Al-Fanar Media editor-in-chief
Our News:
Qatar University Researchers Develop a New Way of Extracting Lithium from Seawater
Researchers at Qatar University have developed a cost-effective and environmentally friendly system for extracting lithium from seawater, as opposed to mining it.
According to a Qatar University news release, researchers at the university’s Center for Advanced Materials developed an electrochemical system that efficiently captures and enriches lithium ions from seawater, while minimizing energy consumption and carbon emissions. The team’s findings have the potential to revolutionise how lithium is extracted, the university said.
Lithium is a scarce metal that is in high demand for making batteries for everything from smartphones to electric vehicles. Traditional methods of extracting it on land are expensive and cause environmental damage.
Iraq Announces the Winners of a Fellowship in Hungary
On Wednesday, Iraq’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced the names of 40 Iraqi students who have won scholarships to study at universities in Hungary for the 2023–2024 academic year. The scholarships are sponsored by the Hungarian government and managed by the Tempus Public Foundation, a nonprofit organisation in Hungary.
The Iraqi ministry’s Department of Scholarships and Cultural Relations called on the winners to contact the department to provide it with a copy of the academic admission and the grant letter received from the Tempus Foundation, and to complete the procedures for opening an academic file. To check the list of accepted candidates, click here.
University of Jordan Cooperates with a Chinese Academy of Fine Arts
Muhammad Nassar, dean of the School of Art and Design at the University of Jordan, met a delegation from China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, based in Beijing, and discussed ways to enhance cooperation between the two institutions in various fields.
According to a statement from the University of Jordan, the two sides discussed ways for exchanging experiences, preparing joint research, and holding workshops, exhibitions, and academic visits for faculty members and students, as well as the possibility of developing joint programmes on issues like the use of artificial intelligence in art. The discussion touched on developing study plans and exchanging academic experiences in this field.
‘42’, a Network of Coding Schools, Ranks Among the Most Innovative Universities
42 Abu Dhabi, the first branch in a Gulf country of an international network of coding schools called 42, celebrated the network’s high placings in the 2023 World University Rankings for Innovation (WURI). The network placed sixth in the innovation category and first in the ethical value category.
According to a statement released by 42 Abu Dhabi, this recognition in the WURI classification places the 42 network alongside esteemed international institutions like Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University.
Marcos Muller Habig, acting chief executive of 42 Abu Dhabi, said: “This is an incredible achievement for the 42 network, and we at 42 Abu Dhabi are honoured to be part of this milestone. This high ranking is a testament to the success of the network’s revolutionary learning model, which has equipped thousands of students around the world with essential digital skills.”
Schools in the 42 network are open to students who are 18 or older, regardless of whether they have a high school diploma. Tuition is free, and instruction is based on peer-to-peer learning.
The WURI ranking is organised by the Institute for Policy and Strategy on National Competitiveness (IPSNC), based in Seoul, South Korea, and is supported by four other organisations, including UNITAR, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.
A Guide to Testing the Abilities of Egypt’s High School Graduates
On Tuesday, Egypt’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced the publication of a guide for the ability tests taken by high school graduates as part of their preparations to enroll in universities.
The Secretary of the Supreme Council of Universities, Mustafa Refaat, said that the council’s secretariat has updated the student’s guide for aptitude tests, which includes the procedures and duration of those tests. To view the new guidebook, click here.
Culture:
Farewell, Milan Kundera
The French-Czech writer Milan Kundera, one of the most prominent voices in world literature, has passed away at the age of 94. Gallimard, which published his books in France, confirmed in a brief statement quoted in an obituary by The New York Times that the renowned author had died on Tuesday in Paris after a prolonged illness.
Notable works in his literary output include “The Joke”, his first novel, published in 1967, and “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, his most enduringly popular novel, written in Czech in 1982 and first published in a French translation in 1984. In his novels, Kundera explores the human condition through irony and humour, and he was among the rare writers whose works were included, while still alive, in France’s prestigious La Pléiade collection in 2011.
In 1975, Kundera went into exile from Czechoslovakia and moved to France. His Czech citizenship was revoked in 1979 and he acquired French citizenship in 1981. Although his Czech citizenship was restored in 2019, Kundera remained adamant that he be considered a “French writer”. Read more about his life and works in obituaries by The Guardian and Le Monde.
Our Suggestions:
The Emergence of Qatar’s University of Doha for Science and Technology
In a “milestone” for Qatari higher education last year, the Qatar branch of Canada’s College of the North Atlantic was transformed into a fully independent new university with a new name: the University of Doha for Science and Technology. Al-Fanar Media covered its first graduating class (read more here).
The new university, which offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees, has been on a growth curve since then. Some 781 students received diplomas last month as the university graduated its second class, and in May the institution announced the launch of eight new academic programmes.
In Conflict:
Criticism of Choice of Qatar to Host Next Year’s World Congress of Bioethics
After some Western academics criticised the choice of Qatar to host next year’s World Congress of Bioethics, expressing concerns about Qatar’s human rights record, a scholar based in Qatar pushed back.
“You cannot pinpoint a country, which happens to be an Arab Muslim country, and say to me, according to my criteria, Qatar is not eligible,” said Mohammed Ghaly, a professor of Islam and biomedical ethics at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University. “This discussion should be based on consistent criteria that we agree on as a bioethics community, and applied to all future hosts.” Read more in this article.
Opinion:
Nurturing Empathy and Solidarity Through Teaching the History of Slavery
One of the greatest benefits of learning about history is the nurturing of empathy for people who led lives very different from our own, writes Jörg Matthias Determann, who teaches history at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. By immersing ourselves in the past, we can try to understand how humans in distant times and places felt, thought, and acted. This can help us relate better to others in the here and now, especially those who appear much more or much less fortunate than we are. Explore more in this commentary.
Scholarships:
Over the past few days, we have published new items about scholarships for Arab students. You can follow our website to keep you updated with the latest scholarships available in international universities. Check the Scholarships section, here, and do not miss our constantly updated feedback on free learning opportunities in the News and Reports section, here.
Recent additions to our scholarship database include:
- Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies Scholars Program
- DAAD Research Grants for Doctoral Candidates in Germany
- Fellowships for Refugees for Graduate Study at AUC
Podcast:
Student Sowt Podcast – Episode 4 – Changing Your Major
In the fourth episode of the Student Sowt Podcast, Mohammed El-Arif, a university student from Egypt, interviewed Nour Walid, a pharmacy student who shifted from studying pharmacy to business management and entrepreneurship. Nour shared her story and her advice to students who are considering changing their university majors. Learn more in this podcast.
Survey:
Exploring Covid-19’s Mental Health Impact on Students and Staff
Al-Fanar Media and the Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED) have launched a joint survey project to explore the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental well-being of students and faculty members in the Euro-Mediterranean region. The project features separate questionnaires for students and staff. Students can take their survey here. Faculty and staff members can take their survey here.
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