Reforming universities in the Middle East

Trends and contestations from Egypt and Jordan

in Learning and Teaching
Author:
Daniele Cantini Halle University daniele.cantini@scm.uni-halle.de

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/latiss.2019.120105
Keywords:
Egypt; internationalisation; Jordan; privatisation; university reforms; World Bank
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Abstract

This article addresses the core-periphery nexus by looking at some of the reform packages proposed in the 2000s in these two pivotal countries in the Middle East, Egypt and Jordan, as well as the resistances they generated. These reform packages include internationalisation and privatisation policies, as well as World Bank–sponsored programmes intended to enhance the higher education sector. These programmes are marked by a high degree of isomorphism with global trends: they belong to an unquestioned centre, with peripheries as receiving points of policies elaborated elsewhere. In this article, I examine some of the resistances they were met with in Egypt and Jordan and show how their translations were shaped by the logics of the local contexts so that they were rarely implemented. Looking at post–Arab Spring developments, the article reflects on the continuity of reform packages amidst political turmoil, and the ways in which these reforms are altering or reinforcing processes of peripheralisation.

Contributor Notes

Daniele Cantini (PhD Modena, Italy 2006) is a social anthropologist currently working at Halle University (Germany). He has been working in different Middle East countries (Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon) since 2003, researching youth and subjectivity, higher education and the institutional dimension of critique, doctoral studies and the production of knowledge, printed media, religion and migration. He taught in Germany (Halle) and Italy (Modena), held research positions in Egypt (CEDEJ-affiliated), Germany (Halle), Lebanon (Orient-Institut Beirut), and Switzerland (Zurich), participated in research projects in Italy and in the United States, and led research projects in Germany and Italy. Email: daniele.cantini@scm.uni-halle.de

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Learning and Teaching

The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences

Cover Learning and Teaching
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
19
Keywords:
Egypt; internationalisation; Jordan; privatisation; university reforms; World Bank
Print Publication Date:
01 Mar 2019
Online Publication Date:
01 Mar 2019
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2019

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