CHAPTER-V MEDICAL COLLEGES IN YEMEN CHAPTER-V MEDICAL COLLEGES IN YEMEN Introduction The Yemeni public university sector is supported by government. As of now, it is playing a vital role in higher education of the country as compared to the private university sector. This chapter describes relevant aspects of the Yemeni public universities including background of Yemen, culture of Yemen, natural resources, climate and geography. It also explains in detail about Yemeni Universities, Public Universities and private Universities and Medical Colleges within Yemeni Public Universities, 5.1 Background of Yemen The formal name of Yemen is Republic of Yemen. It is also known as Yemen and the citizen are Yemeni, major cities are Aden, Taiz, Almukalla and Alhudaydah. The capital of Yemen is Sana'a. The Republic of Yemen was established on May 22-1990(South Yemen &North Yemen) and the Republic of Yemen unified in 1990. Public Holidays: Public holidays (26 September 1962) and (October 14 1963) National Day, National Unification Day (May 22); Corrective Movement Anniversary, Eid al Fitr, end of Ramadan,; Eid al Adha, Feast of the Sacrifice (Decembers); Geography of Yemen: Location: Yemen is located in the Middle East at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula between Oman and Saudi Arabia. It is situated at the entrance of the Babb el Mandeb strait, which links the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean (via the Gulf of Aden). And is one of the most active and strategic shipping lanes in the world.(l) 134 Size: Yemen has an area of 550 thousand square kilometres, including the islands of Perim at the southern end of the Red Sea and Socotra at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden. (2) The map shows the Republic of Yemen after unification: REPUBLIC OF YEMEN ••OK one AM) r-:^i5 SAUDI ARABIA t HmZNM. 'JkTOL wen COVtniCiUlEIOJhCiAJIES OMAN ••';;'-')• ^,_a' .-'-D 'A^^Hc^r *•«.. ' 'V, '•- >^ - "Vr-', 1 ,f';i-'- -• e^ Hoce: - ^ \™^^ Oulf of Ad»n % / DJIBOUTI' i i 1M. Information Climate: A temperature is generally very high in Yemen, particularly in the coastal regions Rainfall is limited, with variations based on elevation. The highlands enjoy a temperate, rainy summer with an average high temperature of 21°C and a cool, moderately dry winter with temperatures occasionally dipping below 4°C.(max.,44,3 «&min. 0) .(3) Population: Yemen's latest census, conducted in December 2006, reported a population of 20.900,532 million people, Yemen's population was 21.538,995 million people as on July 2007 and according to the year book, the population will be increased in 2012 to 25,065 millions.( 4) 135 Culture of Yemen: Yemen is referred to as 'the land of fortunate' since Yemeni people always live in a happy country and always smile to greet each other, and especially visitors, in order to show their friendliness, kindness and a warm welcome to those people. Yemeni people also believe that happy country and smiling makes them happy and feel good. Nearly everything is acceptable to the Yemeni people. Objections and conflict are avoided at all costs. Moreover, Yemeni people are known for their hospitality towards visitors. Yemeni attitude makes the people easy-going and adjustable. Frequently, one can find people of varied religious beliefs socializing happily together. Since Yemen is blessed with a wealth of culture and traditions, it stands out in the Southeast Asian region as a country of grace and pride. Therefore, in terms of human resource development, the nation has realized well, the challenges of globalization, and thus highly values international collaborative relationships.(5) Most of the populations of Yemen consist of Muslims; less than 500 Jews (a fraction of the former population) also live in the northern part of the country, there are also small groups of Hindus and Christians. Islam is the religion of the state. Share's is the source of legislation. Yemen is very rich in its culture and civilization in many of historical stages. (6) Language Yemenis are speaking Arabic language but the different dialects of Arabic typical to the six culture zones are used in daily life. In south Yemen mehri, soqotre and dialect of tahami in west of Yemen are used. Though English is taught in private public schools and from six level public schools, only Arabic is predominantly used language for communication. Now some schools teach French, Germany and Italian. The number of people who can speak English in Yemen is small compared to other Arab countries. Natural Resources Yemen's principal natural resources are oil and natural gas as well as agriculturally productive land in the west.(7) Other natural resources include fish and seafood, rock salt, marble, and minor deposits of coal, gold, lead, nickel, and copper. (8) 136 Political System in Yemen Yemen has been at times at the forefront of Arab countries' efforts to launch meaningful democratic system. It is the first state on the Arabian Peninsula to give right to women and boasts multi-party electoral system. The women have become political leaders. Yemen has almost more than ten major political parties, parliamentary system. 5.2 Yemeni Universities Yemeni higher education institutions were previously under the supervision of theMinistry of Education. In the year 2000, they were transferred to be under supervision of Ministry Higher Education and scientific research, (9) Yemen's higher education institutions can be classified into two types with specific patterns of coordination and institutional governance: • Public universities • Private universities 5.2.1 Public Universities Figure 5.1 Public Universities • SANA'A 1 •ADEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY TAIZ TH.'VM/\R LINIVERSITY LMVERSITY There are eight universities with a total number of 99 colleges, of which nine are centers and institutes, the number of the humanities colleges are 58, some of these colleges are repeated version, for instance, the number of colleges of education are 31, the colleges of commerce, economics and administration are nine, the colleges of Arts are eight, the colleges of Islamic and sharia'a and law are four, the total number of colleges of Languages are three, the colleges of Mass communication, the college 137 of fine Arts and the faculty of physical training, these are single in number, one independent of each. (10) As for the applied science colleges, the total number of these are 41 colleges, where some of these are also in repeated version, such as the colleges of medicine and health science five colleges, the faculty of dentistry five colleges, the colleges of science have five colleges, the faculty of marine science has two colleges, engineering colleges six colleges, colleges of agriculture four colleges , the colleges of computer science and computer centers five colleges, centers of continuous learning' three' centres, the colleges of applied science 'two 'colleges, single colleges are college of pharmacology "one", and college of oil and minerals "one". There are 102 , scientific departments in Govemorates universities in both the humanities and the applied science, these are repeated into 446 departments, the number of the scientific department in the humanities colleges has reached to 446, repeated to 250 version of identical versions. The number of applied scientific departments are around 52, repeated into 196 , identical departments.( 11) .there are also number of universities under planned. From the table 5.1 below one can observe that the oldest universities in Yemen are Sana'a University and Aden university, which the were the first universities considered for development of Yemen in different aspects. Teacher's staff in numbers Faculty members increased by each year in public Yemeni universities. The following table 5.1.illustrates their yearly growth. Table 5.1 Growth of teacher's staff Year Faculty Members 1970-1978 130 in two universities (Sana'a & Aden) 1979-1990 1073 1991-2006 5034 2007-2008 6666 2009-2010 7500 Source: MPIC 138 The table 5.1. Indicates that the number of teacher's staff in various designations and academic positions has increased from 130 members in 1970 to 1978, in the eight years. The number has also grown to 1073 in 1979 to 1990. It is observed that the growth of faculty members after the Yemeni unification has reached to 70% (5034) in 1991 to 2006. in the fifteenth years. While in 2007 to 2008 has reached to 6666 members. Those faculty members have increased to become 7500 members in 2009 to 2010. The conclusion is that the academics staff has developed to play an important role in Yemeni development within few years in Yemeni public universities sector.( 12) Figure 5.2: Growth of faculty members in Yemen Universities 19"0-lM-8 l')"9-1990 I')'>l-20«6 20ir-2(M)8 2009-2(110 Only Two UiUvn siUes Enrolment In order to present the picture of Yemeni universities, it is useful to know the number of enrolments in all Yemeni universities for bachelor degree and higher studies till the year 2008/2009 . The detail of states universities are follows as: Sana'a university has 86572 students, Aden university- 34857 students, Taiz university 34867, Al-Hodeida university 20518, Ibb university 13175, Thamar university 19272, Hadramout university 13146, Amran university 31148. The enrollment of students for higher studies in government universities, are 2533 students in total (Master and PhD). Enrolments in all non-government universities are 68,699 students and higher studies are 1974 students (Master and PhD). The total enrollments in public universities and private universities are 322,254, for bachelor degree and for higher studies there are 4507 students.( 13) 139 Output of higher education: It is observed from table 5.2 and figure 5.3 that there is increase in the number of graduates every year in the number of graduates from the public Universities of Yemen.