A.

B.

ZAHLAN

Science in the Arab Middle East THESE observations on the present state of science in the Arab Middle East will naturally centre on the universities and their science faculties, since scientific research in any country, in whatever institution it is carried on, depends directly and indirectly on the quality of the universities. After about seven centuries of invasion, disorder and decay, in which Arabic learning fell into a very retrograde state, conditions favouring an intellectual and religious awakening began to develop towards the end of the eighteenth century. From 1800 to 1950, an important sequence of events led to the creation of 18 new institutions intended to serve as abodes of modern learning. Nonetheless, apart from isolated cases, there was no institutionally sustained scientific activity in the region before 1950. A general belief in the desirability of cultivating scientific research emerged only with the expansion of higher education.

The Universities: National and Foreign, Secular and Missionary In the Middle East, the university which is both national and secular is about half a century old. Since the foundation of Cairo University, the first of these, in 1908, the number has grown to 37, with about 300,000 students. (In addition, about 25,000 Middle Eastern students were studying in foreign universities in 1967; 7,000 of these were in the United States.) Although Egypt is one of the poorest countries per capita in the Middle East, it has the best national and secular universities.1 The University of Damascus was founded in 1924, but its development has been severely affected by the endemic political instability of Syria. Kuwait and the Lebanon are among the richest Arab countries on a per capita basis, but their national institutions are, for diverse reasons, among the least developed. Kuwait is a country whose wealth is of recent origin, and its university was founded only in 1966. The Lebanon, on the other hand, is not only rich, but has been in intimate contact with the West since before 1800. Yet it waited until 1957 to establish a national university, which, of the major national universities in the area, remains the least developed. The Lebanon has, however, had the advantage of the existence of two institutions in Beirut which are maintained by foreign funds. These are the Jesuit University of St. Joseph and the American University of Beirut. 1 Throughout this article the Middle East refers specifically to the Arab Middle East. This comprises Egypt (the United Arab Republic), Syria, the Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Sudan.

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The earlier form of the American University of Beirut, the Syrian Protestant College, was founded in 1866 by American Protestant missionaries. It was under non-sectarian religious control until 1920, but it provided courses leading to degrees in medicine, pharmacy, and several "secular" courses of study. Today the American University of Beirut is secular, yet of its 3,200 students, about 50 per cent. belong to the traditional Christian communities such as Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Gregorian, Maronite and Protestant. The majority of the staff is still Protestant and Greek Orthodox (66 per cent.), 14 per cent. are Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and the remainder (20 per cent.) Christian communities and Druse. The American University of Beirut is the leading instance of a number of foreign institutions in the area: St. Joseph University, founded by French Jesuits in Beirut in 1881, A1-Hikma University of Baghdad founded by Jesuits in 1956, Robert College in Istanbul, founded in 1863, the American University in Cairo, founded in 1919, and Beirut College for Women, founded in 1924. They are--particularly those of American foundation-the progeny of the "second great awakening ", the missionary movement which began towards the end of the eighteenth century in Anglo-Saxon countries. At the moment they are de facto secular institutions, but they are strongly coloured by their missionary past. They enrol altogether about 8,000 students, and the combined enrolment of the American University of Beirut and the American University in Cairo is about 1 per cent. of the total Arab student population. Since, however, they are financed from foreign public and private funds and since they have been in more intimate contact with European and American institutions of higher learning, they have played an important role in the evolution of higher education in the area, and their significance is disproportionate to their numbers. They enjoy considerably more freedom in the recruitment of staff and in the admission of students. Their budgets, though generally insufficient for postgraduate work, are almost an order of magnitude larger than those of the more populous universities of Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus. Only the new universities in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait outstrip them in financial resources. The pressures to which these foreign-supported institutions are subjected are distinctly different from those acting on the national institutions, and these pressures have on the whole been less damaging to their pedagogical performance. The national secular institutions (and A1-Azhar 2) are financed by public funds and charge token fees, if any. Some of these institutions also provide 2 AI-Azhar is staffed predominantly by graduates of native institutions. It is very traditional, and the incorporation of the modern disciplines (e.g., the sciences), despite nearly two thirds of a century of effort to foster it, is still in its infancy. A number of factors hamper the full integration of the sciences into the normal curriculum of the A1-Azhar University: the traditional subjects are taught at the new campus on the other side of Cairo and the " science faculty " consists for the most part of assistant instructors from the modern universities in the city (Cairo and tkin Shams).

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free housing and meals. The national secular institutions are staffed predominantly by indigenous teachers, many of whom have had European and American training. Several of the national secular universities have sought, at least superficially, to form themselves after German, French, or British models.

Obstacles to the Attainment of High Intellectual Quality The national universities have been much more exposed to the pressures of social and political upheavals than the foreign-supported ones. They are also handicapped by poverty and traditions of institutional arrangement which have inhibited their intellectual development. Despite the fact that a number of these national institutions have been founded with young and energetic teachers, they have not, up to now, been able to secure the funds essential to a satisfactory programme. The fact is that although most of the national institutions in the Middle East are called "universities ", they are not up to the level of good undergraduate colleges in Great Britain or the United States. They lack adequate libraries and staff, and during the past decade they have been flooded with students. The governments of the Middle East are under pressure to develop elementary and secondary education, and the universities, through the governments, come indirectly under that pressure. I am informed by a member of one physics department that a predetermined quota of students must be graduated irrespective of quality, since they are needed by the Ministry of Education to provide the schools with teachers. The quality of the graduates of the institution in question is so mediocre that not 1 per cent. of the graduates are fit to enter a graduate school. The physics department there is staffed with 12 physicists educated in the United States and Europe, but all of them assumed their posts at the university immediately after the receipt of the doctorate; they are too inexperienced to handle such complex political and social problems as are created by government policies, and the management and development of a university department. Shortages of funds and frustration by administrative superiors within their own institutions and departments are difficult obstacles to surmount; they try desperately to keep their heads above water. In several of the national institutions, valiant efforts are being made. Radical improvements in most of the national universities would not be very expensive and would therefore be within the financial powers of the Middle Eastern governments. The problem now hinges on whether a handful of persons can succeed in persuading the authorities, both governmental and academic, of what must be done to achieve a higher level of quality in higher education and how urgent and even vital to national progress it is that that level be attained. In addition to these economic, political and administrative constraints, the Arab secular institutions are handicapped by the fact that they must

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absorb what is essentially a foreign culture which is available only in a foreign language. The primary obstacle to this cultural transfer is the linguistic ability of the students. In Iraq, Jordan, in one Saudi Arabian college (College of Petroleum and Minerals), and in the Egyptian universities the medium of instruction is English, although concessions are made such as lecturing in English liberally sprinkled with Arabic. On the other hand, in certain institutions such as the University of Damascus, all instruction, except in the new College of Engineering, is in Arabic. The choice of the language of instruction is, of course, a matter of considerable importance, but unfortunately this matter has never been given the attention it deserves. Rational consideration of the question is impeded by the fact that it is a sensitive political issue. It is certain that there can be no adequate solution to the problem of higher learning in the Arab world without Arabic becoming the vehicle of thought and instruction. As long, however, as the majority of teachers needed to staff the colleges and universities must obtain their training in European and American graduate schools, Arabic cannot become the effective language of instruction. Where teaching is in Arabic the major obstacle is the fact that almost everything that is taught has to be translated from and learned in a foreign language. Many of the most important works on Arabic language, literature and history and in Islamic studies are now being produced in foreign languages; even the scholarly contributions of the increasing contingent of Arab scholars are in the medium of a foreign language. This means that even in subjects dealing with Middle Eastern culture, the student must be at home in European languages. Given the poor quality of secondary school instruction, however, many of them are not. In the sciences, where practically all the literature is in European languages, the situation is even more difficult. The fact that textbooks might be available in Arabic helps only a little since the supplementary literature scarcely ever is. To all of this there is only one solution. Postgraduate work of high quality must be developed in the area itself. Once this is firmly established, the language of instruction could be changed rapidly, and advantageously, to Arabic? The difficulties of such a change should not however be underestimated. The communication to students of relatively new concepts in a linguistic medium which is not fully developed for this purpose or in a poorly understood foreign language limits the quantity of what can be communicated and the speed at which it can be done. The gap between the daily experience of the student and the needed background for a successful transplantation of a concept is another difficulty. The lack of manual and technical experience and dexterity influences education in the sciences. Foreign cultural elements have to be absorbed in a fragmentary fashion against an alien and often uncongenial background. 3 The use of a language in academic circles cannot be dissociated from the condition of publishing houses, journals and the existence of an intelligent reading public.

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The situation is not made easier by the fact that although the new universities in the Middle East at their present stage of development are a source of knowledge and hope, the growth of knowledge to which they should contribute and with which they are associated in the minds of many can also have a disintegrating and uncontrollable influence. Thus, for example, decreasing the death rate leads to overpopulation, developing irrigation canals spreads bilharzia, improving the army leads to coups d'dtat by young officers, and the operation of higher educational institutions of low quality generates incompetent bureaucrats. They are therefore open to criticism, even when they are successful, because they and their societies are very ill-adjusted to each other. No one wishes to see their doors dosed, but no one is completely happy about them either. Still, only universities constituted by teacher-scholars and student-scholars will be able to assume their full role in integrating into the culture of their communities the knowledge and skill which they import and which they themselves develop.

University Staff: Recruitment and Intellectual Development All Middle Eastern universities suffer from a shortage of outstanding and experienced university professors. It is well known that of the tens of thousands of recipients of the doctorate, only a small fraction (perhaps 1--5 per cent.) turn out to be effective scholars and scientists. It is on this small number of scholars and scientists that the creation and advancement of the cause of higher learning depend, even in the advanced countries. Where there are as few recipients of the doctorate as there are in the Middle Eastern university staffs, the number of persons of outstanding intellectual powers is bound to be very small. Most of the universities of the Middle East were founded without adequate provisions for stalling, and there are at present no adequate facilities for the proper training of new recruits to the academic profession. As a result, staffs have been recruited on an ad hoc basis. They usually consist of expatriates, nationals who have earned an M.A. or Ph.D. and some teachers lent by an international agency. This motley is then slowly expanded and modified by recruitment from the students sent abroad on government grants to pursue a graduate degree (usually a Ph.D.) and who have succeeded in obtaining the sought-for degree. Less frequently, certain universities such as the American University in Cairo and the University of Damascus have also "sponsored" some of their graduates with the idea of their taking an appointment on the staff directly upon completion of the Ph.D. One sometimes sees fairly capable young B.Sc. graduates waiting to be chosen for one of these "guaranteed appointments" grants. The students are usually those who cannot find other means of supporting their studies for an advanced degree. Even if they had the resources to go abroad for an advanced degree, and had the authorisation of their government to do

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so, they still might not go without the guarantee, because employment opportunities even for those with the doctorate are very scarce; they therefore prefer to secure a post before they embark on their studies. The atmosphere generated by this situation is not conducive to the development of the character traits one looks for in a young scientist: independence and a sense of enthusiasm and adventure. This means that the academic labour market and the system of pre-selection tend to bring into the Middle Eastern academic profession persons who lack the best qualities for creative intellectual work. The most immediate effect is that the universities must make their choices from candidates who are often not very promising. The specialisation of students generally involves some element of luck and personal inclination. A gifted scientist usually has greater aptitude for one area of science than for another. At present in the Middle East, students are assigned by their seniors to specialise in certain predetermined fields, regardless of their interest and talents. Recruits to the profession are chosen from among those who have adapted their choice of specialisation to the fellowships available. All personal attachment to a field of investigation arising from a free and generally spontaneous choice is thereby lost. The prevalent system in the Middle East does not in many cases make sufficient allowance for a student's choice. The present system of support for further studies is, of course, better than none. It requires further development and refinement. Fellowships should be more numerous. But before expansion becomes very helpful, academic training in the national universities needs to be considerably improved since the recipients of these national scholarships are primarily graduates of the national universities. The quality and content of the undergraduate courses of study are generally very poor in these institutions. The institutions which enrol the majority of students have such high student-teacher ratios, such heavy teaching loads and poor laboratory and library facilities that though the text for a course might be very advanced, the student need not solve a single problem to qualify for his degree. Quantum mechanics, nuclear physics and similar courses are taught in a descriptive and historical fashion. The present shortage of staff members in all academic disciplines in Middle Eastern universities cannot be met without radical changes in the present pattern of selection of candidates, conditions of work at the national universities and the size of the fellowship programmes. Staff recruitment for these universities is difficult in other ways as well. Unlike new universities in advanced countries, there are no universities in the vicinity to "raid ", and the number of nationals with academic experience is very small. Furthermore, as a small population of Ph.D.s develops, the unattractiveness of the conditions of work at the university becomes a deterrent to making a career there. A young man who has the prospect of a good career at Princeton, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, London or Berkeley thinks twice about an appointment at

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Cairo, Beirut or Baghdad. For one thing, as in other underdeveloped countries, it is almost impossible for a talented young scientist to get the recognition he needs to establish his research programme. Financial and administrative support for a faculty member depends on the ability of some administrator to assess his scientific or scholarly merit. Administrators with the necessary qualities are rare indeed in the Middle East, which means that decisions as to which research proposals are to be supported are often made on a quite arbitrary basis. The brain drain is aggravated by the fact that in some Arab countries it is sometimes difficult to secure an exit visa. I have known a number of Arab scientists living abroad who felt that if an exit visa were guaranteed them, they would be willing to go home and try to work there. The idea, however, that they might be unable to leave if they failed to accomplish anything deterred them from returning home, Once appointed, members of the teaching staffs of Middle Eastern universities are menaced by intellectual isolation. Few of them receive any paid invitations to attend scientific meetings abroad and their universities are too poor to pay their fare; few can pay their own way. In 1965-66 the American University in Cairo and the American University of Beirut began a visiting scientists' programme. Some 20 outside speakers visited the physics department of the latter. During 1966-67, about 100 scientists participated in the American University of Beirut's symposium on the triplet state, while some 80 foreign scientists participated in the solid state conference at the American University in Cairo in 1966. Both the National Research Council of the United Arab Republic and En Shass Atomic Energy Centre invite a small number of outside scientists. The other universities of the area have very little contact with the outside world.'

Research and Research Training In some of the Middle Eastern universities, " t h e research programme" and " t h e staff" appear to be two unrelated things. " I t is established" that there should be certain programme,s, the necessary equipment is then purchased and some staff members are placed in rooms with the boxes containing the equipment. The result is that while there are some wellendowed and capable persons who receive practically no support, others are the inert possessors of an expensive electron microscope, mass spectrometer or high resolution NMR spectrometer. In the few cases where the interests of the scientist are matched with the facilities, a heavy teaching load, low salary and limited annual support for additional equipment and supplies are major obstacles to a full exploitation of his treasures. In some of the new universities excessive sums of money are spent on supply items and simple equipment. One such institution recently placed an order for Enterprising scientists attempt to take a year's leave of absence to participate in some research activity. A good deal more could be done along these lines. Summer and year-long leaves would contribute to the maintenance of the competence of the academic staff.

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$75,000' worth of Pyrex glassware and tubing. For a new institution with about 1,000 students, this is about 20 times what it needed. Unfortunately, Pyrex glass ages and the stocks will be nearly useless a decade or two hence. These examples illustrate the need for experienced departmental chairmen who are capable of making wiser investments of their limited resources. In one case the architect of the budget was a European scientist delegated by an international organisation to "build u p " the department. The above example should not give the impression that such wastage is universal. Only about 10 per cent. of the institutions have had such spells of carefree spending. The mediocre academic who is willing (and happy) to attribute the blame for his poor performance to the system is a common phenomenon. Few indeed are those who are capable of extracting some advantage from the system and of achieving significant scientific results. In the great majority of the universities of the Middle East, it is practically impossible to conduct an experiment in any science because the basic facilities are lacking: no machine, glass and electronic workshops, no suitable major pieces of equipment and no library facilities. Most university libraries do not have subscriptions to the leading journals in the field. Some chairmen of departments and deans are acutely aware of these shortcomings and try their best to alter them, with varying degrees of success. Since these institutions are incapable of contributing at the moment to scientific research we will not go further into their problems. The majority of scientists working in universities outside the United Arab Republic received their higher education in Europe, the Soviet Union and the United States. Although Middle Eastern students thus obtain a sound technical training and a strong intellectual discipline much superior to anything they could receive at home, the development of an indigenous, self-generating scientific tradition in the Middle East is thus impaired. The Middle Eastern graduate students in Europe and the United States are "immersed in values and an educational system that prepare individuals to fit in an advanced country and may unfit them . . . for an active life in their own community. A doctor specialises in a rich man's diseases. At home the poor man's intestinal, eye and bone diseases go unresearched. A chemist is educated to fit as a component in a team. A graduate student in an advanced country is educated to believe that certain activities are important and worthwhile, while others are not. [Working]in a large corporation on the servomechanism of a missile, or developing the electronics for anti-jamming devices to render guided missiles an effective weapon are worthy enough. Teaching in a small college or at a new university in a developing country is not perceived as an equally desirable occupation." 5 In the United Arab Republic there is a 5 Zahlan, A. B., "Problems of Educational Manpower and Institutional Development" in Nader, Claire and Zahlan, A. B. (eds.), Science and Technology in Developing Countries (Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp. 306-307.

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growing number of Ph.D.s who have been trained there. Since, however, the graduate schools of the United Arab Republic are very weak, this inbreeding has a deleterious rather than a strengthening influence, on the future of the sciences there. Substantial numbers of assistants who are usually B.Sc.s or M.Sc.s are used to staff student laboratory sections and to teach introductory courses. The number of teachers holding a B.Sc. or M.Sc. degree generally exceeds the number holding a Ph.D. degree by a factor of two. Practically all the national institutions follow the continental system of having a few professorships per department--for example., Cairo University has only four chairs of physics. The University of Damascus has 10 professorial chairs in all the sciences including geology and mathematics. These professorships are generally occupied by persons between 40 and 50 years of age who occupy in addition several other administrative and part-time posts. The concept of a professor's time being devoted exclusively to his university duties is unknown in the national universities of the Middle East. The consequences for research are obvious. The worst student-teacher ratio in the sciences is at Damascus University, where it was about 75:1 in 1966-67. In the physics department of Ain Shams, which is one of the best in the United Arab Republic, there were two professors, 18 assistant professors (Ph.D.s) and 30 graduate assistants in 1965-66. The department provides instruction for some 4,000 students and grants some 200 B.Sc.s and five to 10 "special" B.Sc.s a year. About 40 diplomas (B.Sc. plus one year of further study), 40 M.Sc,s and " s o m e " Ph.D.s are also granted annually. This is an oppressive load for a small staff consisting of 20 members. In the science faculties of the three leading United Arab Republic universities, Cairo, Ain Shams and Alexandria, the student-teacher ratio was 40 : 1 in 1962-63. 8 The salary scales of the American University of Beirut and the American University in Cairo are comparable to those of medium-level American institutions. The salaries of teachers at the national universities are generally much lower. I am told by young scientists in Egypt, Iraq and Syria that it is virtually impossible to live even modestly on their regular income. Most of them are forced to take on overtime work and/or outside employment. Even with these supplements, they are unable to save enough money to purchase books, subscribe to ]ouruals and pay for occasional trips to attend a conference. It is remarkable that despite these difficulties a number of young Egyptian scientists have been able to develop research programmes and lay down the foundations for a growing scientific activity. Some Case Studies The foregoing remarks are of a general character. It is desirable to describe a few individual cases in greater detail. In case A, I describe 6 Ibid., p. 302.

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the situation in a department which approximates a genuine "university level ". Case B illustrates some of the features associated with the establishment of a new department. Case C is a brief reference to the influence of political instability and unfavourable employment conditions on the development of an institution of higher learning. Case A: In 1950, the science department under consideration consisted of several professors (all Ph.D.s) and an equal number of B.Sc.s and M.Sc.s. All the Ph.D.s were obtained at the best American institutions; one was a " f r e s h " Ph.D. with no experience. Two of the full professors were in their mid-fifties. The B.Sc.s and M.Sc.s were already in their thirties and were all former students of the senior professors. Though the department had been in existence for more than 40 years, there was never any attempt to develop a research programme. The library collection was extremely poor and most journals were not available. Except for the young professor with the " f r e s h " Ph.D. no member of the faculty was aware of recent developments in his subject. The senior professors knew and taught well classical, pre-1925 subject-matter. Laboratory instruction was in a neglected state. The new member of staff was responsible for whatever significant experiments were demonstrated in junior and senior courses. Two more members were soon added to the teaching staff, both young Ph.D.s who had never taught before. It soon became clear that the new members had a different conception of the tasks of the department from the six pre-1950 teachers. Research, books, journals, equipment, graduate students were the topics of conversation of the new group. The forces of inertia seemed unable to resist the march of progress, although teaching loads of 15 hours, very low salaries (about 40 per cent. of an American salary at the same academic rank) and the sheer quantity of work needed were formidable obstacles. The university was prevailed upon to give a choice to those members of the teaching staff who had only the degree of B.Sc. or M.Sc. either to resign or to pursue work for a Ph.D. on full salary. Only those who succeeded in obtaining the Ph.D. would be reappointed. Some resigned. Those who elected to proceed with work toward the Ph.D. did so successfully and returned to become permanent faculty members. The possession of the Ph.D. did not, however, enhance their usefulness. In the 15 years which ensued, young teachers came and left. The senior members retired and slowly a teaching staff of 12 was assembled. Of these, half were on permanent tenure during 1965. The undergraduate programme was developed on the lines of a good American undergraduate college. Research ceased to be an alien idea. Some 30 publications based on work carried out in the department appeared. Twenty per cent. of the seniors went on to pursue successfully a Ph.D. degree in Europe and the United States. The department had a small but flourishing course of study leading to the M.Sc.

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The major problems confronting the department were staff problems. Of the six members of staff on permanent tenure in 1965 only two had genuine professional competence; as a result of an "anybody is welcome" appointment policy, a number of inferior appointments had been made. Throughout the period 1950 to 1965, research never became a declared function of the university professor. A weak central administration and undue respect for seniority together led to the promotion to permanent appointment of a number of clearly incompetent teachers. The fact that the department was isolated from the main stream of science in its own field made it possible for a few persons to make major institutional decisions without any questions being raised. The university still has no requirement for the solicitation of outside opinion and evaluation when an incumbent staff member is to be considered by administration and department for permanent appointment. The whole matter is governed by politics and the political preferences of the trustees. By 1965 the department was at a critical juncture: a continuation of the policy pursued from 1950 to 1965 would result in the enduring feebleness of the department. The battle lines were drawn on the issue of the Ph.D. programme. However, the dominant factor in the crisis was not this matter of principle but a complex pattern of personal relationships and allegiances. Between 1950 and 1962, the desire for a Ph.D. programme had grown in strength and prominence. Its merit was appreciated by the university administration which committed itself to support for the programme. Despite this commitment, however, no new mechanism was created in the university's academic appointment system to strengthen this new trend. As a result the full weight of carrying out the policy had to be borne by a small group of individuals. The termination of the appointment of a colleague one has learned to like personally is never a pleasant affair. Much bitterness is generated in such situations and the unity of the department is damaged. Hence the near impossibility of a pure "bootstrap" process. The outcome of the present struggle in this one department will perforce be a compromise, to the disadvantage of the study of the subject. The brief history of this department illustrates the importance of external consultation for the maintenance of the quality of the teaching staff and of a healthy and friendly atmosphere. External advisory bodies bring a host of problems in their wake unless they are felicitously chosen. We are concerned here only with problems associated with advisory bodies in matters of appointment and departmental programmes for developing institutions. (Some Middle Eastern universities have boards of trustees with American and European members, but these boards are not required to pronounce on specific matters of professional standing.) Some of the problems associated with recruitment and promotion of staff members are common and exist in "average" universities in Europe

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and America. It may therefore be worthwhile here to analyse further two specific experiences in this particular department to show what is involved in the Middle East. The first was connected with the termination of the appointment of a Ph.D. after three years of service. A young staff member, X, was appointed to the rank of instructor immediately after receiving the Ph.D. The quality of his teaching and research was poor. Despite this performance, he was promoted to the rank of an assistant professor after a year of service. During this period the majority of members of the department, including the chairman, were opposed to a research-oriented policy for the department. Naturally this member of staff sided meekly with this majority. Meanwhile changes in the central administration resulted in a policy more favourable to research in the university. When the three-year contract approached its end, a renewal was recommended on the grounds that the person in question "shows promise ". His contract was extended for one year. There was no opposition to the recommendation despite his generally acknowledged ineptitude. The whole case rested on personal considerations: the pro-research group could not bear to terminate the source of their colleague's livelihood and the anti-research group were bound to support a person who agreed with them. Termination finally came but only after several years of unnecessary delay. The second case involved the non-renewal of the appointment of a Ph.D. who had shown clear evidence of competence in research; his qualities were precisely the opposite of those of the person referred to above. Professor Y held a Ph.D. from one of the most distinguished American universities. He had no post-doctoral experience. During a three-year period of service he had shown himself to be a competent teacher. He was a restrained but outspoken critic of the things needing criticism. He began a research programme of his own and collaborated in an interdisciplinary programme. His first year was devoted to seeking research funds. By the end of the year he was able to obtain a modest sum, and towards the middle of his second year the equipment and supplies he ordered began to arrive. By the end of his second year, Y had decided that he was not advancing scientifically and that he should spend a year or two as a post-doctoral fellow in an active American university department. He was, however, desirous of returning to the department. Professor Y completed his third year with the understanding that there was an interest on the part of his department in having him return. Y did excellent research work while he held a post-doctoral fellowship and reaffirmed his desire to return to the Middle East. In the subsequent two years, his return was opposed by the chairman who said that the department should promote the circulation of young staff members. Despite the fact that a few members of the department were in favour of offering an appointment to Y, none was made.

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Eventually Y was offered a professorship (and soon received a permanent appointment) at one of the best American universities. The cases of X and Y occurred within a six-year period in the same department made up largely of the same persons. If one compares the two cases, one notes that whereas X was professionally incompetent he entrenched himself personally, and positive action was needed to dislodge him. On the other hand, Y was 6,000 miles away and did not care to " f i g h t " to return. There was a need for positive action to bring him back. The exertion of a moderate effort in opposition in the case of Y was sufficient to prevent favourable action from being taken. These two cases illustrate the weakness of the system of appointment as practised in departments which are small and relatively isolated from the pressure of academic and scientific opinion in other universities.

Case B: A small private foreign undergraduate college with some 500 students underwent a sudden change in administration around 1960. An applied scientist was installed as chairman of a department. Until then the science programme had been so trivial that there were no established interest groups to obstruct the evolution of the department. However, since the college had no previous scientific programme, it did not enjoy government recognition of its diploma. Without such recognition, the programme would fail to attract students since the graduates would not be qualified for government appointments. (In this particular subject, the state was the chief employer of trained persons.) The department was thus faced simultaneously with four major problems: to construct a curriculum and attract teachers of adequate competence; to develop a research programme; and to obtain official recognition for the teaching and research programmes. The chairman solved the problem of teaching staff in an ingenious and effective manner. This college was in the neighbourhood of several large national universities. The staff members of these were, and still are, very badly underpaid. By the mere expediency of a superior salary scale he was able to attract a number of senior academics to teach one or more courses in the new programme. Fortunately, these same persons were the key individuals in the official recognition of the programme. The chairman's highly specialised background in a branch of applied science was reflected in the type of science programme he sought to establish. For one thing, he tied the programme to a relatively narrow topic in modern science. He then attempted to develop different aspects of this topic. He conceived of his staff members as components in an industrial laboratory. There was, however, little sharing of responsibilities within this young group. The speed with which the programme was developed was out of proportion to the available faculty resources: M.Sc. students were admitted without sufficient regard to standards, thesis research was started without adequate facilities and without adequate

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supervisors and there was an oversupply of poorly prepared students demanding graduate studies in the subjects. And yet in the short period of five years this department was already offering a programme in some ways superior to those offered by the older institutions throughout the city. The chairman wisely set up an intensive programme of visitors. Despite this relatively good contact with European and American scientists, the foreign scientists who were available for employment were not adequate to establish a programme of sufficiently high academic quality. Appointments were conceived as "temporary ". Certain graduates of the college were dispatched abroad to work for a Ph.D. on "approved" problems. These eventually provided the permanent teaching staff. Surprisingly, a substantial number of well-qualified young Middle Eastern scientists were available at the time almost for the asking. It was not clear whether the chairman could not appreciate the qualifications of these candidates or whether he did not wish to depart from his highly specialised programme. This programme is still undergoing rapid development.

Case C : Soon after the Second World War, the Iraqi Government began an ambitious programme of sending large numbers of students on full government grants to study in Europe (mostly in Britain) and the United States. In the course of years, the number of such students came to 4,000. They were expected to return to Iraq to serve in various government agencies and on the staff of the University of Baghdad and the newly founded colleges. Political uncertainties deterred a number of these graduates from returning. Those who did return slowly began to take root. With the Iraqi revolution of 1958, academics became involved in the political upheavals and a large number of them left the country as a result. At the moment working conditions for an Iraqi national returning with a Ph.D. degree are very poor indeed. Not infrequently he earns more as a graduate student in Britain or in the United States than he would as an overworked university teacher in Iraq. The cost of living in Baghdad is not lower than that of London. In Iraq, political factors and the salary scale will probably be the dominant forces determining the future of higher education there. Syria is in a somewhat similar position, except for the fact that at no time did the government support Syrian students on a comparably lavish scale. Decision-Making in Science: The Handicaps ol Underdevelopment During the first four to six years after the completion of his training, a young Middle Eastern scientist rarely has time to think creatively about substantive problems of the science he is trying to establish in his own country. On returning home, he is forced to face problems of a quite different order from those he encountered during his training. Science students receive no training whatever in the administrative skills they need

22

A. B. Zahlan

to establish their science in a backward country. A few years of postdoctoral experience would do much to develop some of these aptitudes. The scientists' problems in dealing with administrators in an advanced country are strikingly different from those in underdeveloped countries. In an advanced country, administrators have usually had some direct contact with scientific activities and they have some appreciation of what science is about; in the backward countries they are several steps removed from the scientific activity. In advanced countries administrators are usually advised by experienced scientists; this is much less likely to be the case in underdeveloped countries. At the moment, the American University of Beirut, the American University in Cairo, the National Research Centre (United Arab Republic) and the Atomic Energy Centre (En Shass) have all reached the stage where they will be unable to make progress unless decision-making about science by administrators wholly ignorant of science is replaced by the procedures more common in advanced countries. But such a change presupposes enough progress in science to make available the necessary body of qualified scientific consultants and to provide some training in science for civil servants.

The Research Effort Since 1950 the pace of growth has quickened. Nineteen new colleges and universities have been founded in addition to a variety of modest research centres. The rate of publication in international journals in all the pure sciences increased from about 10 a year in 1950 to about 250 in 1966. This, of course, is the result of the large number of Middle Eastern students who have worked for Ph.D. degrees in Europe and elsewhere; a very large share of the publications are the results of research done abroad in connection with dissertations. The number of publications attributable to nationals of Arab countries may be in excess of 400 per year, a good many of which again are reports on research done for dissertations abroad. The number of individuals at the post-doctoral and professorial level participating in these activities can be estimated for 1966 to be below 200 in all the pure sciences and mathematics in the United Arab Republic, Iraq and the Lebanon. (The 200 includes " s e n i o r " persons who did publish at a regular rate for several years but have stopped doing so sometime in the recent past; this number also includes "returning" scientists who have regularly published while on leave of absence and young academics whose thesis work puts them on the margin of this category.) This estimate can be broken into countries: Lebanon (practically all at the American University of Beirut) 35, Iraq 10, United Arab Republic 7 r The United Arab Republic is the only Middle Eastern country which has done research on a significant scale. Some research work was already under way there by 1950, for example the photochemical investigations of A. SchSnberg and A. Mustafa at the

Science in the Arab Middle East

23

national institutions 150, the American University of Cairo five (all figures are upper limits). If one refers only to publications from institutions of current employment and to currently active scientists, the estimate (1966) will decrease to about 70, distributed as follows: Lebanon (American University of Beirut) 25; Iraq, three; United Arab Republic: national universities, 40, American University in Cairo, two. Measures of the quality of achievement of Middle Eastern scientific research might include the Nobel prizes earned by Arab scientists and the number of Arab scientific journals listed in the Science Citation Index. No Middle Eastern scientists have been awarded a Nobel prize and only one journal, the UAR Journal of Chemistry, is among the 1,500 journals cited in the Index. 8 The International Atomic Energy Agency announced some 300 scientific conferences for the one-year period from 1 September, 1966 to 31 August, 1967. Of these, one--scheduled for 3-7 September, 1966--was to be held at the American University in Cairo, on the topic "Interaction of Radiation with Solids ", and another was scheduled for 14-19 February to be held at the American University of Beirut, on " T h e Triplet State" (No other scientific conferences were scheduled for the Middle East; Italy was host to eight conferences.) One may add a few remarks concerning scientific contacts in the area. Weak though the contact of Middle Eastern scientists may be with the great centres of scientific research in Europe and America, their contacts with each other are even weaker) The Arab League has sponsored five scientific conferences since 1958, which were of little scientific value. The reason is that the number of workers in each field is very small and there is as yet little overlap between the various workers within or between fields. The population of research scientists in physics, for example, is only about 50, and since the rate of progress in research is low, regional meetings are of little scientific interest; they are, however, of considerable value for the establishment of personal relationships between the scientific workers in the area and in diminishing somewhat the sense of intellectual isolation, which is often overpowering in underdeveloped countries. 1~ University of Cairo, who were making contributions of international value to chemical literature as early as 1943. In biology, some such contributions were being made as early as 1929. The number of publications in Egyptian magazines such as EI-Moktataf, 1 (1876), which first appeared in Beirut from 1876-83, Science Faculty Egyptian University Bulletin, 1 (1934), Bulletin, Faculty of Science of Fuad 1 University (now the University of Cairo) are far more numerous than those of any other Arab country. Only one scientific journal is now published in the United Arab Republic--the UAR Journal of Chemistry, which began publication in 1958. s In Iraq, two periodicals are published. They are the Bulletin of the College of Science of Baghdad University, which began publication in 1956, and the Proceedings of the Iraqi Scientific Societies which began publication in 1957. 9 See Zahlan, A.B., in Nader, Claire and Zahlan, A. B. (eds.), op. cit., p. 304. 1.0 See Salam, Abdus, " T h e Isolation of the Scientist in Developing Countries ", Minerva, IV, 4 (Summer, 1966), pp. 461--465.

24

A . B. Z a h l a n

Briefly then, since 1950 there has been some development in a few institutions with the result that research work has been done in a small number of disciplines by a small number of scientists. Although it is often emphasised that higher education in underdeveloped countries is at the mercy of political pressures, the amazing fact is that institutionally the universities have been totally oblivious to these pressures. Nor is the situation much different in the various fields of applied research which are generally supposed to be directed towards problems connected with economic and social needs. " I n no field whatsoever does one find an institution that has responded in a vigorous fashion to the economic and industrial needs of the area. ''~1 The major non-academic research institution of the Middle East is the National Research Centre (NRC) in Cairo, which has officially been in existence since 1950. Construction began in 1951, and from its inception the centre was oriented towards very applied research. Strictly speaking, it does no pure scientific research except in some areas of organic chemistry (organic synthesis). It has four divisions, under each of which there are specific programmes : (1) chemistry--organic, inorganic, geological, industrial and analytical; (2) agriculture--plant protection, fertilisers and soil, agricultural technology; (3) medicine--pharmacology, veterinary science, public health; and (4) natural sciences--solar energy, physics, standards. Studies of mining separation and purification of minerals such as manganese, thorium, vanadium and zirconium which are found in Egypt have been undertaken. The purpose is to apply standard techniques to the development of local industries. Special geochemical and geophysical surveys have also been sponsored. The study of desert climate, motion of sand dunes and sea currents at the entrance to the Suez Canal, the improvement of the use of brick for construction, uses of new raw materials in the glass industries and exploitation of solar energy in cooking and in the distillation of salt water are among the projects of the centre, which is also in charge of control standards for weights, voltage, wattmeters, etc. It is clear from the above that the "applied research" being conducted in the area consists partly in the use of standard techniques in a novel situation and partly in the application of new techniques to the improvement of old industries. There is, however, no applied research as it is practised in advanced countries. The centre is staffed by about 50 full-time Ph.D. holders and more than 200 assistants working for a degree at one of the Cairo universities. The centre also sponsors research projects outside its laboratories and involves in its activities a large number of university teachers. Agricultural stations are now well established in practically all Middle Eastern countries: they are few in number and generally small. Much 11 Zahlan, A. B., in Nader, Claire and Zahlan, A. B. (eds.), op. cit., p. 309.

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25

expansion in the range and quality of their activities is needed. They also need to develop better consact with the farmers. Unfortunately, as long as the average farmer is illiterate, the centres find it difficult to propagate complex ideas and techniques. In the Lebanon, the government operates a Lebanese Research Institute and a few small agricultural research stations. One of these research stations produced chicken inoculation vaccines (Lebanese strains) which made possible the mass production of eggs and poultry. In 1956, both eggs and chicken were scarce. Today, the Lebanon produces enough for its needs and exports a large quantity of both items. Poultry produce is now one of the Lebanon's chief products and is valued at $20 million annually. The Atomic Energy Centre of En Shass is 20 miles outside Cairo. The major physics facilities were still being assembled in 1960. The major equipment consists of a reactor and a 2.5 Mev van de Graaf accelerator, both of Soviet manufacture. There are also facilities for Beta-ray and mass spectroscopy, as well as for low temperature plasma physics. The centre has also a chemistry and biology section. En Shass represents the largest concentration of scientists and technicians in physics in the Middle East. The physics research programme began late in 1961 after the completion of equipment installation. A few Soviet physicists still collaborate with the United Arab Republic staff. The van de Graaf work in the field of nuclear cross-sections and nuclear reactions has been reported in regular contributions to the following international journals: Nuclear Physics, Proceedings of the Physicai Society and Nuclear Instruments and Methods. Fourteen publications during 1962-65 had 15 authors, of whom six were Soviet nationals.1~ The number of Ph.D. level physicists serving full time at the En Shass Centre is about 12. The total number of scientists (including M.Sc.s and above) in all fields (mostly applied fields) is about 200. The centre suffers from shortages of senior experienced physicists and a lack of funds to develop research facilities. Low salaries force the senior and junior scientists to hold two or more posts, thus reducing the attention they can give to each. Research in the pure sciences, apart from physics, is very limited in scope. For one thing, low-energy nuclear physics does not hold the position it did 20 years ago. The work at En Shass is also outside the mainstream of theoretical and experimental nuclear physics as practised in the major science centres of the world. 13 Research work by the physics departments of Ain Shams and Cairo Universities is done for the most part at the En Shass Atomic Energy 12 According to the 1964 Bulletin of the centre, the number of research publications in all fields was seven in 1956; i.t was 12 in 1958, 27 in 1961, 40 in 1962 and 38 in 1963. 13 See Khuri, N. N., " T h e Pure Sciences in the Arab Countries Today ", a talk delivered on 29 April, 1965, at the Seventeenth Annual Near East Conference at Princeton University.

26

A. B. Zahlan

Centre and only to a small extent at the universities. Chemistry appears to be the most developed of the sciences in the Middle Eastern universities; each university has at least one well-established research programme. The American University of Beirut has, after the United Arab Republic, the most extensive research activities in the Middle East; they not only go further back in time, but are the best documented. In biology, some nine different research projects were initiated during the period from 1959 to 1965. Only one or two projects were still in progress during 1967. The research interests were in the fields of collection and classification of species of fleas in the region, sea life, the ecology of bryophyte in the Middle East, genetics, renal function and massive kidney hypertrophy, and obesity in laboratory animals. In chemistry, 13 research projects were initiated. Five of these were still going on in 1967. The research interests were in the field of organic synthesis (steroids, pentaerythetol, polysaccharides, pyrroles), hemoproteins, physical chemistry, analytical chemistry (ultramicro techniques). In mathematics, of 12 research projects initiated during this perod, two were still in progress in 1967. The research interests were in the fields of number theory, the history of astronomy, elasticity, statistical learning models, logical relations, geometry and group theory. In physics, 12 research projects were initiated, eight of which were still in progress in 1967. The research interests were in the fields of magnetic resonance, spectroscopy, excitons, vortices in helium II, phase diagrams of helium 3-helium 4, high-energy theoretical physics, defects in ionic crystals and the history of astronomy.

TABLE I Publications in all Fields and in any Journal by Scientists on the Staff of the American University of Beirut (1866-1965) Department No. of authors No. of academic staff a Publications before 1920 (54 years) Publications 1921-58 (37 years) Publications 1959-65 (seven years) ~

Biology 14 22 (14) 0

Chemistry 31 24 (21)

Maths. 15 26 (20)

Physics 21 30 (28)

1

15

9

54 b

46

82

71

60 (20)

55 (22)

35 (33)

69 (20)

SOURCE: This table was based on the compilation of the faculty publications (except for the figures in parentheses in the last row). Publications include laboratory manuals, articles in Middle Eastern magazines of a general nature and work prior to joining the American University of Beirut as well as scientific publications while at the university. a Figures in parentheses refer to numbers of teachers in the subject from 1956 to 1965, b One professor of biology (1963-66) contributed 34 of the 54 publications in 1921-58 and 33 of the 60 in 1959-65. e Figures in parentheses refer to the number of papers published while the authors were actually on the staff of the American University of Beirut.

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27

It is easier to count papers than to evaluate their quality. In the departments of biology and mathematics up to June 1965, one notes little work in the crucial areas of these disciplines. In each of these departments there was one programme of high quality which received recognition. 1" Since most of the publications appear in Western journals, they meet the usual acceptance standard. Quantitatively, these contributions are so few that they do not constitute a significant contribution to world knowledge. A small number of holders of B.Sc. degrees earned in the Middle East, who subsequently obtained Ph.D.s in the United States, have attained fairly high distinctions for their research in the pure sciences. To summarise, a small number of scientists--about 20--have successfully established research programmes, primarily at United Arab Republic national institutions and the American University of Beirut. The scope of research is relatively small. A small number of programmes have received some kind of recognition. A good deal of encouragement, funds and competent manpower will be needed to expand and develop the present programmes. With some luck both Beirut and Cairo might turn out to be respectable science centres with a population of hundreds of physical scientists. The city of Beirut boasts four universities (American University of Beirut, Lebanese University, St. Joseph, the Arab University of Beirut), two colleges (Beirut College for Women and Haigazian College) and a centre d'dtudes sup~rieures. If these seven institutions were to recruit and maintain university-level staff in the sciences and if the Lebanese National Research Council were to carry out its responsibilities for financing scientific research, Beirut could easily develop a fairly dense scientific community. Similarly, in Cairo there are three large universities (A1-Azhar, Ain Shams, Cairo), one small university (American University in Cairo) and two major research centres (National Research Centre and United Arab Republic Atomic Energy Centre at En Shass). Cairo also enjoys the dubious advantage of a large number of students. 1~ If the government of the United Arab Republic were to expand its support of its institutions, this might become a substantial asset. The major advantage of the United Arab Republic institutions is that the government has expressed a belief in science in terms of financial support. Up until now, the Lebanese Government has expressed the same beliefs, but only in words. On the other hand, some of the Beirut institutions provide a high quality undergraduate programme which is unequalled in the United Arab Republic. Hence there is a sounder base to build upon. 14 Recognition is taken to mean two or more of the following: citation in scientific literature, an invitation to contribute review articles and major conference papers, the receipt of substantial outside grants for research programmes, and work noted favourably by one or more leading scientists in the same field. 15 The number of students enrolled during 1966-67 in all fields (law, medicine, sciences, etc.) in all Beirut institutions was about 27,000 compared with about 170,000 in Cairo.

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A. B. Zahlan

The Finance of Scientific Research It is widely believed that scientific research is expensive. This, however, is not always the case. Even in the United States where science is lavishly supported, the total expenditure on the pure sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics) during 1966 was about one billion dollars--or 1 per cent. of the federal budget and less than "15 per cent. of the gross national product. At the present stage of development in the Middle East, an investment of 1 per cent. of the total budgets of all the Arab governments of the Middle East on pure scientific research would increase the present level of public support from about $1 million a year to about $30 million. The initial investments in the two United Arab Republic centres to equip the physics and chemistry laboratories must have been of the order of a few million dollars. The nuclear reactor is sometimes employed for pure research. The annual expenditure on the pure sciences is less than $1 million in the United Arab Republic and significantly less in Iraq. The United Arab Republic teams could benefit greatly by an increase in the rate of capital investments and annual operating costs. Government and university officials who have had little to do with scientific research assume that once a machine is purchased there is no more need for additional funds. Funds for equipment, supplies and salaries are all in short supply. There is much unused equipment in the United Arab Republic. For example, there are four electron microscopes which have not been used in scientific research, a magnificent mass spectrometer which lies idle, X-ray and NMR units and numerous high resolution spectrographs which are collecting dust. One great obstacle to a productive employment of these instruments is the inadequate qualification of the staff. Research work in crystallography, NMR and electron microscopy is needed. However, the scale of the commitment of the United Arab Republic Government to scientific research is not sufficient to make this possible. The present shortage of funds interferes with the rectification of errors, replacement of poor staff members and keeping abreast of developments elsewhere. Though the United Arab Republic Government has had the best record of all the Arab governments, it still falls short of what is necessary and possible. In the Lebanon, in 1962, the government passed an act of parliament committing it to devote 1 per cent. of the annual budget to the support of scientific research. This comes to a respectable sum which would be in excess of $2 million a year. A National Research Council consisting of 12 members and a director was appointed to administer these public funds. Not one single member appointed to the National Research Council had participated in any scientific research for the past 12 years. Only one member of the council had ever done a modest amount of independent research; 80 per cent. of the members of this council had

Science in the Arab Middle East

29

never received any higher education whatever in any of the pure sciences. Not one member of the council had ever established or administered an independent research programme. The Lebanon does have a certain number of citizens who have distinguished themselves in various sciences. Some of them emigrated because of the lack of support in the Lebanon; others have established in the Lebanon small but respectable programmes. No attempt was apparently made to appoint any of these scientists to the council. The director of the council was a graduate of the t~cole Polytechnique in Paris; he was an engineer and served as such on numerous government boards. Some of the council members were among those who had pressed the government to assume its responsibilities for scientific development. The council has thus far failed to fulfil its mission; up to 1967 it had not supported any pure scientific research. Recent improvements have been insufficient to overcome the handicaps of Lebanese politics and a meagre Lebanese experience in science. The composition of the council had to reflect the political realities of the Lebanon, which include the French, Lebanese and American universities and the various religious communities which must always be represented in an appropriate balance. Most of the other countries of the Middle East have established national research councils, but they have done nothing to match their declared intentions with action. A major competitor for financial resources in every country is the department of defence. Defence research broadly conceived often contributes to scientific research in advanced countries. Except for Egypt, however, the Middle Eastern countries under military rule have not been particularly hospitable to the development of science. The few private universities are in a different situation as regards financial support. Members of the academic staffs of the American University of Beirut and the American University in Cairo may receive research funds from American foundations, the United States Government and from their own university budget which is American in origin. At the American University of Beirut, the following sources of funds were available over the decade 1957-67: (1) Direct research support, consisting of (a) $50,000 a year in the budget of the school of arts and sciences, most of which was used to finance pure scientific research; this sum was part of a $5 million 10-year grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, and (b) grants from the United States National Institutes of Health, the American Chemical Society--Petroleum Research Fund, the Research Corporation of New York, the United States National Science Foundation and the United States European Office of Aerospace Research. These sources contributed $100,000 during 1966-67, of which about $60,000 was in physics, the rest in chemistry, mathematics and biology. These funds supported graduate assistants, research associates, supplies, equipments, a symposium and a visiting scientists pro-

30

A. B. Zahlan

gramme. (2) Indirect research support, consisting of (a) Staff salaries, most of which are paid by the university. One third to one half of the time of some 35 staff members was devoted to research work, representing a direct contribution of some $130,000 a year to research by the university. (b) The equipment and supplies budget, a substantial fraction of which is earmarked for advanced teaching and research. This is about $50,000 a year of the ongoing budget. During the past few years, new buildings for physics, biology and chemistry have been erected and equipped. Possibly $300,000 of the equipment investments was of direct relevance to research. (c) Some 20 graduate student teaching assistantships costing the university some $40,000 annually have enabled a small number of students to continue their graduate studies at the American University of Beirut. (d) The Atoms for Peace programme. A United States Government grant to the Republic of Lebanon in 1960 enabled the physics department to be a custodian of Varian ESR and N M R spectrometers as well as of an ADL Collins Helium Liquefier. This contributed $160,000 worth of valuable basic equipment at a critical time in the development of the physics department of the American University of Beirut. (e) The investment in library facilities is of the order of at least $200,000 in books and journals, and of $500,000 in buildings and staff salaries. (f) The equipping and staffing of machine, glass and electronics shops is vital even for the most modest research activity. Here an investment of some $50,000 in equipment and an equal amount in supplies was made. The annual budget of these shops includes $15,000 for salaries and $20,000 for equipment and supplies. Thus, about $500,000 is spent directly on research each year at the American University of Beirut in the departments of physics, biology, chemistry and mathematics. A further $300,000 supports research indirectly. In addition, there was an investment of some $6 million in building, equipment, salaries and supplies over the decade from 1957 to 1967. At the American University in Cairo, the scale of the research is much smaller. Research is still in the initial capital investment stage. Investment in the new science building and new research equipment in the field of X-ray crystallography, spectrophotometry, magnetic resonance and radiation damage is equivalent to about $2 million. The scale of the American University in Cairo operations is expanding rapidly, and in a few years might reach the level of the American University of Beirut. It is relevant to compare the budgets (1963 data) of a few United States universities--Chicago (6,934 students), $150 million, Harvard (12,354 students), $102 million, Brown (4,283 students), $19 million--with the American University of Beirut's 1966-67 budget of about $12 million. A very modest American university physics department budget is of the order of $1.5 million. (The "immodest" budgets may run into tens of millions.) That of the physics department of the American University of

Science in the Arab Middle East

31

Beirut is $300,000. Yet this is probably the largest physics department budget in the Arab Middle East. Students The size of the student body in the Middle East is about 300,000 in the 37 "colleges and universities" and other "institutions of higher learning" of various sorts. 16 In addition to these there were 25,000 students from this region enrolled in universities abroad. These 325,000 students represent about 5 per cent. of the 18-24 age-group assuming a life span of 60. (University and college enrolments of this age-group are roughly 10 per cent. in Europe and 35 per cent. in the United States.) Approximately 92 per cent. of the Middle Eastern students were enrolled in undergraduate courses. About 2 per cent. are enrolled in post-B.Sc, level medical cou~rses and 6 per cent. in M.A./M.Sc./Ph. D. level courses. Several United Arab Republic universities grant the Ph.D. degree, but the postgraduate programmes in science are without exception very weak. Even so, there is barely one institution per 20 million inhabitants offering Ph.D. programmes. The United States has about one Ph.D. granting institution per two million inhabitan~ts. Of the Arab Middle East students enrolled in American colleges and universities during 1964-65, the enrolment in undergraduate, M.A./M.Se. and graduate and doctoral programmes in all subjects including medicine, engineering, etc., was 2,045, 871, and 931 respectively, which means that the number of United States-earned doctorates does not exceed about 250 a year. If we estimate that the enrolments in Europe and elsewhere are four times those in the United States, one finds that the 60 million inhabitants of the Middle East are earning "foreign" doctorates and M.D.s at the rate of some 1,250 a year. This compares very unfavourably with the United States rate of 24,000 a year for a population of 180 million. In view of the fact that the teachers to staff the new and the expanding institutions of higher education have to be recruited from these 750, the prospects for the future of higher education in the Arab Middle East do not look very bright. There has been a 65 per cent. general increase in student enrolment over a five-year period. The rate of increase varies slightly from country to country, but is, however, steadily increasing, and is estimated at 85 per is There are diverse sources of information on this topic. For general information, see Boardman, Francis, Institutions of Higher Learning in the Middle East (Washington, D.C. : Middle East Institute, 1961), and the International Handbook of Universities and Other Institutions o] Higher Education fParis: International Association of Universities, 1965). However, the best sources are A b u - K h a l d u n Sate' A1-Husri's oompilation covering the period 1957--62, and Waardenburg, Jean-Jacques, Les universitds darts le monde arabe actuel, Vol. If, Statistiques (Paris and the H a g u e : Mouton et Cie, 1966). Unfortunately, no equally detailed data are available for the period 1962-66. The universities of Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are of very recent date; four of the six colleges and universities in these countries were founded after 1963, and one was founded in 1957. Their combined enrolment in 1967 was less than 5,000 students.

32

A. B. Zahlan

cent. over the period 1961-62 to 1966-67. In other words, over the 10-year period 1956-57 to 1966-67, the enrolment tripled. If it continues at this rate for two more decades, it will reach a proportion almost equal to that of the United States. The percentage of serious science students does not probably exceed 2 per cent. of the total, although the fraction of students going into the sciences and technology (including medical sciences) is relatively large except in Syria. It is interesting to note that law schools enrol hordes of students. The training in law is generally of a poor quality, but it enables those who pass the law examinations to secure a wide variety of government positions. The Influence of Science on the Middle East Middle Eastern pure scientific research is so young that very little direct influence on the economy of the area is to be expected. Scientific research, in the form of applied research in agriculture, medical sciences and applied chemistry, has, however, made some direct contributions, and some indirect contributions might also be attributed to it; I shall mention two of these. First, the pure science departments are involved in the education of engineers, doctors, science teachers. The quality of the education thus imparted depends very much on whether or not the science teacher is engaged in productive research. The science teacher who does no research loses contact with his subject, his teaching becomes out of date, and he fails to impart to his students a fruitful example of the scientific disposition. The future secondary science teacher is similarly influenced by the university science teacher. The slow and gradual improvement of the technological and medical professions and of the quality of secondary school teaching depends on the quality of the staff of university science departments. Second, the humanities, law and religion are now strongly coloured by "science ". Hence, the scientist, by participating in the development of his university, is contributing in a special way to all these disciplines. This is more acutely needed in the developing countries than is the case in the West because of the widespread ignorance of anything scientific amongst the majority of college graduates. Tens of thousands of law and literature college graduates have never had the slightest intellectual contact with the sciences. Thus even now, in the transition stage, those engaged in research may be making significant contributions to their communities by modernising their cultural outlook. Relorm : Obstacles and Needs Briefly, the main obstacles to reform are: (1) the shortage of science teachers; (2) the shortage of scientists with academic experience; (3) the absence of public and government understanding of science and the

Science in the Arab Middle East

33

scientist; (4) political and social disorder; (5) the poor quality of elementary and secondary school education which leaves university and college students unqualified for scientific studies; (6) the relative isolation of Middle Eastern institutions from each other and from the major metropolitan scientific centres; (7) the direct dependence of Middle Eastern higher educational institutions on government ministries; (8) the need to use a foreign language as a medium of instruction; (9) the difficulty of obtaining suitable foreign advisers and consultants; and (10) the brain drain. The private foreign universities have a reasonable salary scale which compares favourably with academic salaries in Europe and the United States. The national university salary scale is based on the government salary scale, and, without exception, this gives the professor a lower income than the doctor, lawyer and engineer. Consequently, the university teacher takes on two or even three jobs to earn an adequate income, and is unable to devote himself exclusively to his academic work. The time available for teaching graduate students, for doing research and for keeping up with the literature is reduced to practically zero. In some institutions, the teaching loads range from 15 to 25 hours a week. This, on top of the low salary, disables the university teacher completely. The University of Damascus is in such a state. The Lebanese University pays a "full-time" staff member some $225 per month but demands only about seven lectures a week. An accomplished Beirut secretary can earn more than $250 a month. The teaching load is extremely high, even if one accepts that the teachers are not expected to do research. For a teacher trying to develop his section of the department (student laboratories and library collection), 12 hours of teaching a week is a maximum. If he is trying to do research, the demand on his time for developing technical facilities and a good library collection will increase, and six hours of teaching a week is the most one can reasonably expect him to do. Middle Eastern universities, furthermore, are too closely connected to their governments. The universities should become autonomous public institutions. This would permit them to develop a salary scale independently of the government scale, and it would provide some academic freedom for the staff. It is impossible to raise university standards without making simultaneous improvements in secondary school standards. A small number of elite elementary and secondary schools would help raise the quality of admitted students. If 2-3 per cent. of the secondary school graduates received a good education, the university could improve its standards. It is feasible even for poor countries to staff and finance the education of such a select group of children. Departmental advisory committees should be formed consisting of three

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A. B. Zahlan

eminent external scientists. They should be given an important voice in cases of staff promotions and permanent appointments. There should be more contact between Middle Eastern scientists and the "outside world ": this should be brought about through frequent visits to the Soviet Union, Europe and the United States at the rate of one visit per year per scientist, and the holding in the Middle East of international symposia and conferences in advanced fields. At least six to 10 such meetings should be held annually in the region. The conferences would further the diffusion of an understanding of common problems, lay the foundations for more ambitious regional associations and improve the recruitment of staff by creating a more unified intellectual market. Such conferences also would bring the scientists and institutions of the area into more intimate contact with foreign scientists. Some of these visitors might return to join the staff of a university for short- or long-term appointments, while others might be willing to serve on departmental advisory boards, external examiners' committees and appointments committees. The graduate students would benefit a great deal from this. The scientists in the region would get to know each other and to meet frequently, and they might thus be enabled to free themselves from some of the toils of an intellectual provincialism which deadens their imagination and initiative. The number of scholarships for foreign study should be increased, and the selection of candidates should be improved. These measures would help to meet the grave shortage in qualified scientists and to reduce the brain drain. But the brain drain and the shortage of qualified scientists will not be overcome until the Middle East develops at least one major centre of postgraduate studies and research. Under present circumstances, even were such a centre of postgraduate studies to be created in the Middle East, it would not be competitive with the major centres in the Western countries, not only because the latter have so much talent at their disposal, but also because the nullity of much of the Middle East in scientific research would mean that, for a long time, teachers, administrators and politicians--none of whom appreciate the ethos and the value of research-would not be in a position to appreciate the intellectual quality of such a centre. A new postgraduate centre in the Middle East would first have to establish its reputation in the great metropolitan centres of science before it could find appreciation in its own region. (My own view is that it would require a decade of productive research with about 300 publications in the main esteemed journals of the scientific profession, in addition to a considerable number of international conferences, before a Middle Eastern centre of postgraduate training and research could acquire the reputation necessary to make it competitive enough to attract a sutficiently large number of good students to provide 10 Ph.D.s annually.) Some of these reforms, especially those which cost little money, could be fostered through the personal initiative of the scientists themselves.

Science in the Arab Middle East

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There is much to be accomplished by improving the quality of teaching and the level of B.Sc. courses and by raising university standards concerning admission and graduation requirements. (Raising the level of mastery of foreign languages would be of material advantage to the ambitious graduates.) Some of the reforms proposed above depend on changes within departments or within universities while others require substantial commitments on the part of government and the politically active public. None of these reforms could be brought about without considerable exertions by a large number of Middle Eastern and foreign scientists. Unfortunately, the load on the few hundred scientists now employed in the Middle Eas.t is already heavy, but even a heavy teaching burden should not be an insuperable obstacle to the concerted act of will which is the fundamental precondition for some of these reforms. The present generation of scientists has had the opportunity of seeing and grappling with the difficulties of establishing scientific research in a new environment. Some wisdom might be transmitted to the oncoming generation of Middle Eastern scientists through public discussion of the present state of affairs and analysis of the needed reforms. It is through such discussions that new voices in the service of science might be recruited and public awareness of the needs of Middle Eastern science be aroused. By taking thought about their own plight and showing enough courage in acknowledging their situation, the scientists of the Middle East have an opportunity to transcend their present malaise, to break out of the vicious circle in which they are entrapped at present. Of course, the process is bound to be slow, and slowness is discouraging. All the more reason therefore for the scientists of the Middle East to bethink themselves of what they must do.