Palestinian Higher Education: National Identity, Liberation, and Globalization

Palestine is part of the Arab world; the Palestinian people, irrespective of their national and residential status, are also part of the Arab nation. In an important way, no discussion of the evolution of higher education in Palestine and of the Palestinian people can take place outside the two decisive contexts within which it developed and was shaped: the emergence of higher education in the Arab world itself; and the colonial and semicolonial context of higher education, which affected, both positively and negatively, its organization, curriculum, purposes, and contemporary questions.

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The contemporary Arab world boasts of founding perhaps one of the oldest universities in the world, namely, the Azhar University of Cairo. Founded in 972 A.D., it has continued, since that date, to impart higher education not only to Arabs but also to Muslims throughout the world. While a graduate of the Azhar University of the tenth century would note some kinship with the present university, the Cairo-based Azhar University of today is more modern in its curriculum, structure and organization, certification, accreditation, and overall purpose, so that it might be almost unrecognizable by its tenth-century graduate. Then, and now, its scholars and students came from all over the known world and affected the growth of higher education in important societies East and West. Other similar institutions developed throughout the Muslim world: thus institutions of higher education distinguished themselves in Tunis, Fez, Baghdad, Damascus, and Jerusalem, stretching as far north as Seville, Cordoba, Toledo, and south to Timbuktu and Jenne. These and similar institutions contributed enormously to the knowledge base of Islamic society and made it possible for that society to contribute in no small way to European development and to the development of the European institutions of higher learning (for example, the Universities of Paris and Padua).

It is useful to point out some common characteristics of the system of higher education that prevailed then and that continue today. All such institutions were essentially open to all those who could benefit from them. A certificate (Ijaza) was issued by the master scholar (‘Alim) to his disciples, which made it possible for the disciples to impart knowledge or to become judges. The state as such had no authority over the system. Only when the state wanted control and engaged in a conflict over legitimization did it actually sponsor such educational institutions. Another characteristic of the system was its free access. Students did not pay for their education, and the scholars received income from endowments bequeathed by benefactors. These institutions of higher education existed within mosques, which were generally endowed by private philanthropists and occasionally by the state but were free and open to the public. It is clear from the historical record that such institutions, developed to impart knowledge, which was highly valued by society, in fact produced an elite that met the needs of the society of the time. The educated elite (the Ulama [scholars]) had considerable prestige, recognition, and responsibility throughout the Islamic and Arab world.

The decline of the Arab world—in particular, from the sixteenth century on—clearly contributed to the decline of the traditional higher-educational system. This became evident as the “modern” Arab state began to take shape by the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Updating the educational system became an important priority in Tunis, Egypt, Lebanon, and eventually throughout the Arab world. In that sense, “modernization” meant that the institutional base of society had to be transformed sufficiently to become more Europeanized, or Westernized. Push-pull forces incorporated the Arab world into the world system of the time. The “modernizers” of the system thought that this transformation would enable them to mount a better defense of their societies, to halt the alleged or perceived decline of their societies, and to benefit more from their own social and economic resources.

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An important outcome of the modernization effort was the...