Arab Educational Information Network

This study presents a summary of Arab countries’ experience in the development and organization of private higher education; and aims at reviewing the licensing regulations and procedures and identifying the means for monitoring, supervision, and control performance as well as outlining the advantages and disadvantages of these regulations and means. The study touches briefly on the development of private higher education in the Arab states, and discusses and analyses licensing systems and means of monitoring and supervision, focusing on the experiences of eight Arab countries: Jordan, Sudan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Tunisia. It reviews these countries’ experiences with licensing regulations, procedures and structures, as well as with their means for evaluating performance, with the aim of outlining similarities and differences.The study concludes that in many Arab countries, relative progress has been made in applying licensing systems, as well as in monitoring and control, particularly after a report by a group of experts (2000). Yet, the controls applied do not take into account many of this report’s recommendations. In addition, there are shortcomings and weaknesses in monitoring to ensure continued compliance by the institutions with the set standards. Moreover, the controls proposed in the experts’ report need to be developed and updated to keep pace with regional and global developments. The experience reviewed has shown that the controls proposed in the report and those that are applied are designed for the traditional higher education system, and fail to take into account the standards of modern higher-education models that have begun to spread in the region. The study also puts forward a number of recommendations. (Published Abstract)