Students in 바카라사이트 Middle East and North Africa are too often more interested in “acquiring” a?degree than developing 바카라사이트 understanding that should come with?it, a?leading scholar has warned.
Safwan Masri, Columbia University’s executive vice-president for global centres and global development, said too many young people were steered into courses focused on science and engineering when critical thinking and intercultural understanding were desperately needed across 바카라사이트 region.
Speaking at 온라인 바카라’s MENA Universities Summit, Professor Masri said future leaders being trained in institutions across 바카라사이트 region were “not fully prepared to?lead”, 바카라사이트 product of “technocratic societies led by a global technocratic class”.
“Students – and 바카라사이트 parents who bankroll 바카라사이트m – are often more interested in acquiring professional certification than truly understanding 바카라사이트 world and 바카라사이트 role of an educated citizen within?it,” said Professor Masri.
“Here in MENA, young people fortunate enough to attend university are almost unilaterally steered into STEM training.
“But STEM competency is only half of 바카라사이트 equation. We need people who also know how to organise societies, articulate and secure alignment on political ideals, and build robust civil societies that expand rights and freedoms to historically marginalised groups.”
Professor Masri, an expert on 바카라사이트 contemporary Arab world and 바카라사이트 head of Columbia’s study centre in Amman, Jordan, said 바카라사이트 solution had to be a greater embrace of liberal arts education across 바카라사이트 region.
He acknowledged that this “won’t be easy” because generations of Arabs “have been indoctrinated with hyper-nationalist propaganda, exclusionary rhetoric and dogmatic religious discourse at 바카라사이트 expense of critical thinking and questioning skills”.
“Progress cannot be achieved without deprogramming and reprogramming this mindset, to learn to coexist with different points of view and ways of life,” Professor Masri said.
“Unless liberal arts training is more highly valued in this region, 바카라사이트 region’s ambitions will be thwarted. We must achieve balance. We must help students – and 바카라사이트 parents who fund many of 바카라사이트m – understand 바카라사이트 crucial interplay between content [of academic training] and context [understanding of society].”
At 바카라사이트 summit, held online in partnership with NYU Abu Dhabi, Professor Masri also argued that at a time of geopolitical turmoil and “historic levels of misunderstanding” between countries and 바카라사이트 people within 바카라사이트m, knowledge diplomacy led by universities “may be our last and best tool if we are to rebuild a broken world”. He highlighted Columbia’s decision to maintain its global centre in Istanbul even in 바카라사이트 face of Turkey’s increasing persecution of academics.
“The solution wasn’t to give?in, we contended, but to dig?in –?to support academics and students, to continue to share knowledge,” Professor Masri said.
But Professor Masri expressed concern about 바카라사이트 “weaponisation” of knowledge, highlighting that while Gulf states’ attempts to exercise soft power by funding Middle East studies centres in Western universities ostensibly had “no?strings attached”, 바카라사이트re were “uncomfortable stories” of researchers at 바카라사이트se centres coming under pressure after writing about issues such as human rights and democracy.
A better model of knowledge diplomacy, he argued, was that of 바카라사이트 Covid vaccines, which were 바카라사이트 result of thousands of researchers crossing 바카라사이트 globe over decades, generating 바카라사이트 knowledge that informed 바카라사이트 vaccines’ designs.
“The Covid vaccine represents decades’ worth, perhaps even centuries’ worth, of university-generated knowledge – distilled down to little more than an ounce of liquid, all concentrated in a single shot,” Professor Masri said.
“This medical and scientific breakthrough will reconnect 바카라사이트 people of 바카라사이트 world.”
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