Bulletin: Nordic Scholars Call for Ceasefire in Gaza, Hungary Offers Scholarships for Yemeni Students
A Positive Citizen
In our new bulletin, Al-Fanar Media brings you our most prominent news and stories about higher education in the Arab world.
This week I want to reflect on the attributes of “positive citizenship.”
What is positive citizenship, and how can that culture be built? What is required to build a “positive citizen”?
In my opinion, positive citizens are flexible, conscientious people who seek to serve their community, regardless of their location or their work.
Whether you are a student, an administrator, or an employee, everyone in the education enterprise has one goal, which is to contribute to the cohesion and strength of society, so that you can deal with its crises and problems.
Good education plays a pivotal role in building the personality of positive citizens, arming them not only with knowledge but also with skills, including teamwork, problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, and flexibility.
Awareness of one’s needs, family, and community is the starting point. This will encourage people to engage in group activities, break with selfishness, and make them more connected to their community.
At the university level, the matter is maximised, and education is linked to the needs of society and the labour market, with knowledge and skills.
This is the starting point.
Mohammad El-Hawary
Al-Fanar Media editor-in-chief
News from the Region:
Nordic Scholars Call for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza
More than 1,000 scholars and academic workers in the Nordic countries have signed a letter calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. “We cannot stay silent while watching the Israeli state killing thousands of civilian Palestinians in front of our eyes,” states the letter, which comes in response to an open letter from Birzeit University last month that urged academics worldwide not to remain silent about “genocide”.
According to a statement from Birzeit University, the Nordic scholars also called for the urgent restoration of water, food, fuel, medical supplies and humanitarian aid in Gaza; the immediate protection of medical facilities; and facilitating safe passage for injured and critically-ill individuals in need of medical treatment.
See the original text of the Nordic scholars’ letter here. View the list of signatories here.
Qatar U. Plans International Congress of Engineering and Technology in December
The College of Engineering at Qatar University is organising the third International Congress of Engineering and Technology from 3 to 7 December. Congress events will include the 15th International Conference on Applied Energy, the 15th International Conference on Social Robotics, and the International Conference on Resilience in Mobility and Logistics, the university said in a statement.
Khaled Kamal Naji, dean of the College of Engineering, said that activities will include plenary sessions and keynote lectures on relevant topics. The Congress will also serve as a forum for exchanging technical information, disseminating high-quality research results, and presenting new policies and scientific progress in various fields, he said.
Also see: 223 Arab Universities Make It into QS’s Regional Ranking for 2024
Hungary Offers Scholarships for Yemeni Students
The Yemeni Ministry of Higher Education has announced the start of registration for scholarships provided by Hungary for the 2024–2025 academic year. Applicants must apply for their chosen programme on the website of the Stipendium Hungaricum, the Hungarian government’s higher-education scholarship programme, at this link. The deadline for registering is January 15.
The host institutions in Hungary will notify every student who applied for a scholarship and will send to the Yemeni ministry a list of the names of all students who passed the technical requirements for applying. The ministry will later create a registration page on its website where students can check the status of their applications. The ministry will select and notify the scholarship winners.
King Khalid University Concludes the Ninth Cultural Olympiad
Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid University concluded the ninth Cultural Olympiad, “Silver Jubilee Edition,” which drew over 2,000 students to participate in its competitions.
According to the Saudi Press Agency, the Olympiad included prizes in 19 literary, cultural and artistic categories, including memorising the Holy Qur’an, the most beautiful recitation, the Prophet’s biography, oration, the “explain” competition, poetic debate, eloquent poetry, and Nabati poetry. There were also competitions in short stories, Arabic calligraphy, fine arts, photography, digital art, the “60 Seconds” competition, community service, and theatre.
MBZUAI to Highlight AI Research for Sustainability at COP28
The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) is set to participate in the Greening Education Hub at COP28, the United Nations climate-change summit that opens on Thursday, November 30, in Dubai.
According to the Emirates News Agency (WAM), the university will highlight its critical role in developing the United Arab Emirates’ artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and a pipeline of talented individuals with the skills and knowledge to enable organisations to embrace “AI for Climate.” Sultan Al Hajji, MBZUAI’s vice president for public affairs and alumni relations, said, “AI is helping us solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges with unprecedented speed, scale and precision.”
The Greening Education Hub, hosted by Unesco and the Emirates’ Ministry of Education, is dedicated to highlighting the importance of education in addressing climate issues.
From Al-Fanar Media:
‘Free to Think 2023’: A Year of Bombings and Other Attacks on Higher Education
In “Free to Think 2023”, Scholars at Risk documents another year of bombings, political restraints, and other attacks on students, scholars and universities. The annual report, by the group’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, calls for global action to protect academic freedom and the higher-education community. This year’s report analyses 409 attacks on the higher-education community in more than 60 countries that occurred between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. Read more in this article.
In Conflict:
Birzeit U. in Letter to World: ‘No to Silence over Genocide’
Amid protests at dozens of Arab institutions denouncing Israel’s continuing air and artillery strikes on the Gaza Strip, Birzeit University has called on universities worldwide to say “no to silence over genocide.” The letter calls on international academic institutions to “take concrete action to stop the genocidal war against the Palestinian people and to end Israeli settler colonialism in Palestine.” It was released last month as education groups in many other countries held vigils and other events to show their support for the Palestinian cause. Read more in this article.
Tips and Resources:
Scholarships for Students with Disabilities: a Sampling
As the world observes an International Day of Persons with Disabilities each December, many institutions, including universities and scholarship donors, highlight their efforts to integrate this group of people into all areas of life. In some countries, persons with disabilities are described as “people of determination” in recognition of their achievements in many fields. Their inclusion in education at all levels and the availability of scholarships for them are specific targets of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4. Read more in this article.
Opinion:
World Risks Losing a Generation of Scientists Due to Conflicts, Displacement
Armed conflicts, violence, human-rights violations, and natural disasters have displaced millions of people around the globe, including an unknown number of scientists, doctors, engineers, and others with advanced technical training. Unless more is done to support them, the world risks losing a generation of scholars and their expertise, an Egyptian academic writes in an essay for Al-Fanar Media. The international scientific community can and should do more to ensure that displaced scientists can continue contributing to their local communities and the world, says the scholar, Tarek Kapiel, of the Faculty of Science at Cairo University.
Podcast:
New Al-Fanar Media Podcast Aims to Help Arab Youth on Journeys toward Success
Al-Fanar Media Podcast posts a new episode every Sunday in which our correspondents across the Arab world tackle various issues of higher education. The podcast’s first episode delves into how scientific research predicted the devastating floods that hit the Libyan city of Derna during Storm Daniel in September. You can listen to this episode, and others in the series, on SoundCloud, Spotify, or YouTube.
Scholarships:
Al-Fanar Media maintains a database of quality scholarships available to Arab students, which we continuously update. To stay up to date on the latest scholarships available in international universities, check the Scholarships section here, and watch for updated feedback on free learning opportunities in our News and Reports section, here.
