Countries and Regions

NUMBER 53, FALL 2008

Efforts to Reconstruct Afghan Higher Education

Michael Daxner
Michael Daxner is professor of sociology and President of the Observatory of the Magna Charta. He was senior international adviser to the government of Afghanistan. Address: Universit?t Oldenburg, D 26111 Oldenburg, Germany. E-mail: michael.daxner@uni-oldenburg.de.

In 2003 higher education in Afghanistan was made up of 18 universities, with 34,000 students in a country of about 27 million people. Half of the institutions deserved the "university," the rest were just places of postsecondary training. However, the number of highly qualified academic teachers had already grown exceptionally. Returnees from the West, Iran, and Pakistan and graduates from the former Soviet Union challenged the resident faculty who had survived the regimes since 1976, when the 30-year war began.

Today, 20 public universities are registered, 9 private institutions are seeking accreditation, while one (the American University of Afghanistan) has been functional since 2006. There are about 100,000 students enrolled, many more women have been admitted, and from the outside the system seems to be surviving. At a closer look, however, this system is at a critical crossroad.

After 2002, there was some immediate progress under the liberal, well-educated Higher Education Minister Mohammad Sharif Fayez, who is an eminent scholar in comparative literature and knows the West from his exile in Washington, DC. He encouraged local and foreign experts to assist in urgent drafting of legislation. The German Rectors' Conference and the German Organization for Academic Exchange helped to establish a rectors' conference in Afghanistan and UNESCO assisted in drafting a master plan.

Backlash
Only when President Hamid Karzai refused to sign the law, wanting parliament to vote on the legislation, the misery began. Fayez was dismissed, and his successors were conservative enough to return to prewar legislation or to copy the occupation rules from the Soviet period. The backlash was imminent on all levels, despite considerable international help and the high potential of returnee scholars. The rectors' conference was stopped, student participation and freely elected rectors belong to the past, and the country is about to lose ground again in the international higher education community.

Public higher education is hardly breathing within a restrictive bureaucracy. The former minister Fayez is now the founding president of the American University of Afghanistan. Other private institutions are needed to meet the demand for teachers, midlevel executives, lawyers, and other professionals. Arts and social sciences have yet to be reintroduced or initiated. A research base is required in most disciplines, while the basic equipment is still deficient. Academic freedom, social protection for students and faculty, a sustainable and effective undergraduate coursework, and an interface with international standards are still missing, despite considerable efforts by the US Agency for International Development; German, Japanese and other countries' aid; and some support by the World Bank. Yet, many reformers seek international assistance without the help or blessing of the ministry. Exchanges with foreign universities and some aid programs have become a certain routine. A few campuses are being renovated, but the lack of maintenance and basic equipment continues. The ministry is trying to cut the tiny blossoms of autonomy and accountability within the institutions. There is a mixed situation after five years of reconstruction.

Outlook
Hopefully, the experience of academic freedom and average social and cultural environments of good universities will have a stronger impact on the returning faculty members and some students than the manifold attempts to radicalize the religious and other authoritarian influence at all levels of society in Afghanistan. The facts are simple: higher education is, apart from the new national army and some sectors of business, the only way to escape the vicious circle of poverty, illiteracy, and the war economy. Furthermore, demands for low levels of tertiary education—such as community colleges and undergraduate or professional and vocational training—become stronger by the day. These factors may prove to be the only exit from the Taliban insurgence return or another large-scale exodus of skilled Afghans.

The war zone covers about half the territory but for most people, security is not at the top of the agenda. Most people are concerned with clean water, energy, employment, and education. Of course, the Afghans need well-trained security forces and police for protection. This is why international troops will also be needed for a long time to train local police and the national military. However, secondary education, teacher training, basic expert education in agriculture, technology, social work, and social science are most urgently needed to fulfil all the priorities. Money is needed for dormitories (especially for women), teachers' salaries, teachers' social protection, and for a high level of international participation.

The United States bears the biggest part not only of the war against the Taliban and insurgents but also involving civil reconstruction. While US efforts could be better allocated, the rest of the international community must share the task of building Afghanistan's new society. Countries need to disburse the pledges made over the years, less than 45 percent of which have ever been fulfilled. What the country requires is material support and solidarity.

[Online] Available: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number53/p24_Daxner.htm