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Can Afghan Universities Recover from War

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Can Afghan Universities Recover from War NEWSFOCUS Afghan elite. Graduates at Ameri- can University of Afghanistan in Kabul celebrate, but their career plans are uncertain. satisfy the country’s desperate need for technical talent. “After 3 decades of war, Afghanistan has lost one-and-a-half gener- ations of experts in all fi elds,” says Timor Saffary, the head of AUAF’s department of sci- ence and mathematics. “The intellectual elites either left the country or have passed away, leaving a huge vacuum.” Saffary earned Ph.D.s in both mathematics and physics and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Germany before joining AUAF in 2009, and the 39-year-old native of Kabul hopes to be a part of the gen- eration who fi lls that vacuum. With the help of the United on August 13, 2012 States and other countries, Afghan academics are begin- ning to pick up the pieces. But a deadline looms: Inter- national military forces are preparing to leave the country HIGHER EDUCATION by the end of 2014, and it’s anybody’s guess what will happen after they are gone. “Many of the highest qualifi ed and talented academ- www.sciencemag.org Can Afghan Universities Recover ics are looking nervously at the 2014 with- drawal,” says Michael Petterson, a geologist From War, Taliban, and Neglect? at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom who leads fi eld research and train- The demand for technical talent and outside funding is helping colleges get back on ing workshops in the region. “And who can their feet. But higher education is still not a priority blame them?” Downloaded from KABUL—Except for the armed guards in ating from high school in Kabul, Fazel left Afghan ivy body armor at the entrance, on the roof, and Afghanistan and eventually earned a Ph.D. What returning Afghan academics have patrolling the campus, this college gradu- in chemistry in the United States, at the State found is a once-proud system of higher ation ceremony could be taking place any- University of New York, Binghamton. He education on the rebound after hitting rock where. Students in black gowns and mor- worked for Danone, the multinational food bottom a decade ago. In 2002, Afghanistan tarboards are grinning for photographs with and cosmetics company, and rose to become had 12 barely functioning universities; now their families as the registrar hurries through director of research before starting his own it has 30, and they enroll roughly 100,000 the crowd, urging people to take their seats. biotech consulting fi rm based in Paris and students. Secondary education has enjoyed But once the keynote speaker takes the Shanghai. an even more impressive recovery, with the stage, the difference between this ceremony Speaking in Dari, one of the country’s number of high school graduates increasing and countless others becomes clear. For two main languages, Fazel says that the sevenfold since 2002. starters, it celebrates one of the fi rst graduat- next generation of Afghan scholars should In fact, that surge has overwhelmed ing classes at Afghanistan’s only elite private eschew globetrotting and put their expertise the country’s system of higher education. institution for higher learning, American to work at home. “It is up to you to rebuild Admission to public universities is based SCIENCE University of Afghanistan (AUAF). And the this country,” he tells the 45 students who on a nationally administered exam, and stu- speaker, chemist Akram Fazel, is asking the are receiving their bachelor’s degrees on this dents pay no tuition. The Ministry of Higher students not to follow in his footsteps. scorching day in May. Education projects that, without a signifi - To be sure, Fazel has enjoyed a fi rst-class Now chair of the board of trustees of this cant increase in capacity, universities will be education and ample success. Indeed, he has 6-year-old institution, Fazel knows as well able to offer spots to only one in 10 students CREDIT: J. BOHANNON/ J. CREDIT: lived the life many dream of. After gradu- as anyone that the tiny graduating class can’t who apply in 2014. www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 337 10 AUGUST 2012 639 Published by AAAS NEWSFOCUS The anticipated leap in demand was one Its leafy, walled-in campus serves as a quiet reason the government created AUAF as the oasis in a city that struggles to provide even country’s only not-for-profit, private and the most basic amenities—water, power, independent university. The U.S. govern- waste disposal—for its 5 million residents. ment is its main funder: The U.S. Agency Its 20,000 students make it by far the largest for International Development (USAID) has university in the country. spent $200 million on higher education pro- Founded in 1931, Kabul University is grams in Afghanistan since 2002, and half also the country’s most prestigious, and its of its current tranche of $90 million for pro- science programs are bulging at the seams. gram funds is designated for AUAF. USAID “This is introductory physics,” says Moham- Administrator Rajiv Shah calls the school a mad Arif, a chemist and dean of the faculty “best-in-class institutional partner” and says of science, poking his head into a lecture the university is intended to show “the value hall. The sweltering, windowless hall, with of true, high-quality higher education in hundreds of students crammed into every helping societies grow and develop.” seat right up to the top wings, looks more Although AUAF operates under a char- like the setting for a rock concert than a ter from the government, an independent physics class. board of trustees sets its policies. At $5500 “We are at double capacity,” Arif says. a year, tuition is beyond the reach of all but Some 1500 students are pursuing science the wealthiest Afghan families, and 70% of and math degrees in the departments under its students receive fi nancial aid. Homeward. Muhammad Mujtaba plans to return to his watch. The total does not include applied Sharif Fayez, a Persian literature scholar Afghanistan after U.S. graduate training. science majors in the university’s schools of who helped launch AUAF as then–minister engineering, agriculture, and medicine. of higher education, says that a Western- ican University [in] Cairo [for] 20 years.” The current situation is a far cry from the style university is needed not just to attract That university had weaned itself from recent past, says the 62-year-old Arif, who on August 13, 2012 the best students “but also the best faculty.” U.S. funding and was self-sustaining at that has taught at Kabul for 2 decades. “In the A typical public university professor earns point, he adds. days of the Taliban, it was normal to have less than $500 a month, while AUAF fac- AUAF has similarly lofty aspirations, only one or two students in our classes,” ulty salaries are competitive with those at and it’s moved with deliberate speed in says Arif, a cosmopolitan intellectual who Western universities. In return, all faculty building its capacity. It currently offers stu- was forced to wear a beard and turban members are expected to hold an advanced dents three undergraduate degrees, with during their reign. And that era was only the vast majority choosing the latest insult to the country’s system of business and finance. (Com- higher education. puter science/information tech- Arif had just fi nished his Ph.D. in chem- www.sciencemag.org nology and political science/ istry in Moscow in 1979 when the Soviet public administration are the Union invaded his homeland. “That’s when other two bachelor’s-level pro- everything fell apart,” he says. The depar- grams.) There are seven faculty ture of Soviet troops in 1989 led to a civil members in its science and math- war that subsided when the Taliban took ematics department, which offers over. “We just never recovered.” a variety of introductory and mid- The U.S. invasion in 2001 offered a ray of Downloaded from level courses. Some 500 students hope for Afghan academics. But so far job are enrolled in its undergraduate training has been the highest priority. “We degree programs, with a simi- actually put far more resources into voca- lar number pursuing English- tional training in communities—essentially language studies. Another 800 the Afghan version of community colleges,” students are taking short courses says Shah about USAID’s portfolio. in various fi elds offered by the The Afghan government spends about Opportunity. Women engineers are taking advantage of an university’s professional devel- $35 million a year on higher education, most internship program for fourth-year college students. opment institute. Fazel says that of it for administration, faculty salaries, and chemistry and earth science routine maintenance. Other requests wind degree. (The fi gure is 40% for all Afghan degrees are next on his wish list. up in the back of the queue. Two years ago, universities, up from 30% in 2008.) for example, Arif applied to the ministry for “We’ve had a lot of success with this A history of violence funds to update the chemistry labs. “I still model over the course of USAID’s history,” But while AUAF may ultimately train the have not heard back,” he says. Shah says. “It was actually the American elites, the vast majority of Afghans seeking The other science disciplines are also lan- University [in] Cairo that brought a lot of higher education will fi nd it in the public uni- guishing. “This is our physics lab,” he says, technology industries to Egypt. And a lot versity system.
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