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Higher Education in the Arab world is non-compulsory, formal education that occurs after secondary education in the twenty-two Arab states. The Arab world is home to one of the oldest universities in the world, Al-Azhar University, established in the tenth century C.E. in Cairo. Initially founded as a center for men to study Islamic law and theology, Al-Azhar now offers many academic disciplines to both male and female students. Al-Azhar aside, contemporary higher education in the Arab world is often traced back to colonial and missionary universities established by Europe and the United States in the early nineteenth century. These institutions were few in number, and access was limited to upper-class individuals living in major cities.〔Mazawi, Andre Elias (2005). “Contrasting perspectives on higher education governance in the Arab states,” in ''Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research'', 20: 133-189.〕 Higher education in the region has grown dramatically and has experienced many changes, since its beginnings in the colonial period, and especially since the middle of the twentieth century. Though significant differences exist between higher education sectors in each country of the Arab world, some general trends are evident, including navigating the forces of globalization and attempts to increase access and gender equality. Despite significant changes, Arab universities continue to receive relatively poor evaluations from the major global university-ranking systems. ==Contemporary history== Until the middle of the twentieth century, ten universities existed in the region, including the American University of Beirut (then called Syrian Protestant College), Université Saint Joseph in Beirut, Cairo University (then called the Egyptian University), University of Algeria, and University of Damascus (then called Syrian University). With the decline of official European colonialism and the independence of Arab countries after WWII, higher education institutions and student enrollment quickly multiplied. While pre-independence institutions were primarily private and foreign-operated, post-independence universities were largely public, state-run institutions. During this period a clear hierarchy among academic disciplines was developed; students with higher grades in secondary school were admitted into the science faculties, while “weaker” students were placed into social sciences, humanities, and Islamic studies.〔 Instability, globalization, and a general economic downturn in many Arab countries led to new reformist trends in higher education beginning in the 1980s and continuing today. The various reform movements are debated among the various stakeholders (governments, local and foreign institutions, students, citizens), and take on different characteristics in each Arab country. These (not always successful) reforms and trends include increasing privatization, calls for greater access, improving the capability of universities to meet the demands of society, matching educational “outputs” with labor market needs, and negotiating a competitive global education market.〔Bhandari, Rajika and El-Amine, Adnan (2012). ''Higher Education Classification in the Middle East and North Africa'', New York, NY: Institute of International Education.〕 There has been tremendous growth in higher education in the Arab world since the last years of the twentieth century. Student enrollment has jumped from roughly 3 million students in 1998/99 to about 7.5 million students in 2007/08, while the number of universities has grown almost three-fold in the same time period. Higher education in the region has also trended toward increased privatization, though considerable differences occur between countries; Bahrain, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, and the UAE have the highest percentage of students enrolled in private universities (above 50 percent), while Iraq, Libya, Morocco, and Sudan have the lowest percentage of enrollment in private universities (20 percent or less).〔 In universities today, Islamic studies, social sciences, and the humanities are typically taught in Arabic, while “hard” sciences, technology, and medicine are usually taught in English or French (based on previous colonial rulers). Instruction in Arabic is almost exclusively carried out in Modern Standard Arabic, as opposed to the various colloquial dialects. Some countries have proposed – and to various degrees, enacted – policies to increase the amount of instruction in Arabic. This so-called “Arabization” of higher education is a highly contested issue that is infused with a variety of political and cultural debates in different Arab countries.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Higher Education in the Arab World」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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