In 1991, in two different continents, momentous decisions were leading to the founding of new universities. Eastern Europe was seeing off communism. The Arabian Gulf, still shaken, was seeing off the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq’s tyrant, Saddam Hussein. In both cases, it was plain societies could not remain the same. Some Arabian princes drew the same conclusion as the Hungarian-born billionaire, George Soros: their countries needed new universities to face the world.
By 1991, Soros had already founded the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest. It was the mid-1990s by the time the first of the new crop of universities in the Gulf were founded – all following a US-style curriculum, usually marked by a name heralding the institution as the ‘American University of/in…’ (Dubai, Kuwait, Sharjah, etc.).
Twenty to 25 years later, CEU is a top-ranked university (especially in the social sciences) while the Gulf ‘American Universities’ are not; in fact, nowhere near. It’s not CEU’s tiny head start that explains the difference. Nor is it some general inferiority of the Arab world. The explanation lies elsewhere.
Soros developed a brand from scratch. You could argue his name and well-known determination to build an open society in central and eastern Europe was a brand in itself. But he also focused on the essentials: attracting top academics and with clear targets of excellence.
After a mere 25 years, CEU already has a list of distinguished alumni, despite being a small graduate university. But the reason that CEU attracted the kind of alumnus who would go on to distinction is that it remained focused on the academic side – and not on how many jobs would be created in Budapest.
In other words, he invested in a university with 14 departments, 17 research centres, a business school and another for public policy, an endowment of almost $900 million, and a distinguished board of trustees.
Those are the criteria for developing a new brand in academic excellence. The focus on accreditation is a red herring – that’s the basic minimum that even Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma (founded by a Protestant fundamentalist preacher and with a student body similar to that planned for AUM) has managed.
The new Gulf universities, notwithstanding the ‘American’ label, have not managed this, despite working with an established brand. Both the American University of Beirut and the American University in Cairo (founded roughly 150 and 100 years ago respectively) have excellent regional reputations – enough to attract top US academics to lead them.
But the Gulf universities – all accredited in the US – have struggled both to attract students and to build up a reputation. Only one of them is a scam (the one in Iraqi Kurdistan). Not all of them are in the same league.
We are going about the project backwards
The American University of Sharjah, with circa 5,000 students, is arguably the one that has succeeded most.
The American University in Dubai, founded two years earlier, in 1995, took several years to grow to 3,000 students, remaining in the hundreds for the first five of its existence.
Today, 20 years later, its website finds it noteworthy to report that the London School of Economics has accepted a second student from AUD to study for a master’s – which gives you a sense of its horizons.
What accounts for the differences? The competition for one. Dubai is home to business schools and universities from London, Manchester and Rochester, not to mention Asia. Abu Dhabi, situated close by, hosts New York University, Paris-Sorbonne and INSEAD. If the American University of Sharjah has done relatively better, that is probably because it hosts far fewer foreign universities.
In other words, when the businessmen behind the American University of Malta state that they will attract students from around the region, they need to give us more details about why they think that Arab students will forego the American-style universities that are closer to them, let alone the private US and European universities, and instead come to Malta for four doctoral programmes.
Will it be the endowment? The top-tier academics? The chance to network with future high-flyers?
It’s not going to be the lifetime opportunity to rent a flat in Marsascala.
Two things are amazing in this American University of Malta saga.
The first is that the investors and the government don’t speak about academics at all. They speak about things they will do for the people who will not attend the university: jobs closer to home for people in ‘the south’ (will there be a southern quota?), facilities for the local football club and host-family opportunities for the maisonette dwellers.
All of these things would still be the same even if what was being set up happened to be a branch of the London School of Make-Up (although attracting students would also be tough – there already is a branch in Dubai).
The second amazing thing is how the government has gone about this.
The idea of setting up a regional centre of excellence in higher education is a promising one.
It is an idea that has been championed for years – backed with a detailed strategy – by Juanito Camilleri, rector of the University of Malta, which would be the first institution to benefit from a cluster of great centres of research and teaching located in its proximity.
But the way to go about it is the opposite of what the government has done. You’d have to start first with a prospectus and an identified site.
Then you’d go on a tour to the top- and near-top range universities in Euro-America and Asia, to see which would be interested.
Malta has the talent and the connections to be able to make direct contact with top-flight institutions.
There would be reasons for some of them to come, not least if – as with Soros 25 years ago – the mission was in part defined as a response to a new social dispensation in the region.
In this way, the institution(s) that come to Malta would come with their own established brand(s), which would help Malta build its own.
Instead, here we are going about the project backwards. The official starting point is how to lift the economy of Marsascala eateries, to which the answer apparently is a university.
Maltese businessmen, who would have gathered €115 million among themselves if they had known the prize, must be bemused. Soros could not be reached to make a comment.
ranierfsadni@europe.com