Conference on Academic Freedom “Academic Freedom in Arab Universities, Amman, 5-6 November, 2010”

Under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Issa Batarneh, President of Princess Sumaya University of Technology On 5 and 6 November, 2010, a conference related to the project on Academic Freedom in Arab Universities, aimed at identifying new challenges and seeking to promote academic freedom in Arab Universities, has been held at Princess Sumaya University of Technology in Amman.

Prof. Dr. Issa Batarneh opened the works of the two days conference. He pointed out that Universities are facing a lot of challenges in this period, and this fact is more evident in Arab countries, since the Universities have little chance to compete at a regional and international level. It is imperative to work hard to reexamine policies, procedures and objectives, and this is why this conference is so important. The key point is in fact the support of the academics in educating the young generation freely, without risking incidents and harassment. Academic freedom is not important just for Professors, but for civil society as well.

Dr. Nizam Assaf, Director of the Amman Centre of Human Rights Studies (ACHRS), which organized the conference, stressed that the challenges to be faced in the Arab academic world are a lot. The most important ones are financial, as it is extremely important to seek further funds and direct fundraising also to private sector, thus differentiating the financial sources, and developmental, since the research is the basis for promoting freedom in Universities.

Prof. John Akkar, Director of NEAR, the 10 years old network created by UNESCO to provide a world focus on academic freedom and to provide academics with its knowledge and expertise, coordinated all the meeting.

During the conference several topics have been discussed. The 2010 report made by ACHRS have been illustrated and distributed to the participants and the Action Plan for the following years has been enriched with important concrete suggestions.

The priorities agreed are: the website, for gathering further information on violations of academic freedom in Arab Universities; the 2010 report, which will be updated with a two-pages report from all the countries participating in the project; the research on academic freedom. In the next months two committees will also be formed, to develop the terms of reference and a concept paper on academic freedom in Arab Universities.

A lot of work has been done and a lot remains to be done. The enthusiasm and the commitment of the participants, all academics from different Arab countries, make us more than optimistic about the results to be achieved in the next steps of the project