DAMASCUS, Syria – The Institute for International Education has launched a project that enlists universities worldwide to provide displaced Syrian professors and students with opportunities to continue their academic work until it is safe to return home.
Thirty-five colleges and universities currently constitute what is referred to by the IIE as the Syria Consortium, a network of schools that have committed to providing aid to Syrian students and professors. Most of these schools are located in the United States. Members of the consortium provide displaced university students with full and partial scholarships. They also provide temporary teaching fellowships for displaced Syrian professors.
The civil war has ravaged Syria’s higher education system. Universities, seen as ideological threats to the Syrian regime, have been a primary target of the government regime since the beginning of the war.
“The universities were targeted and bombed early, faculty members and students that provided first aid were labeled by the regime as aiding the terrorists,” Allen Goodman, CEO of the IIE, said in an interview with Newsmax TV.
The Syria Consortium serves not only as an avenue for professors and students to continue their academic work, but also as refuge from the violence that has overtaken Syria.
Professors, the faces of academic opposition to the regime, have been particularly vulnerable. Al-Fanar reports that 53 professors are dead, 52 have been injured and four have been kidnapped. Many others have been threatened and blackmailed. It is estimated that up to 30% of Syria’s professors have fled the country.
The biggest threat to the welfare of university students lingering in Syria has been mandatory military service. Both the government regime and rebel forces set up check points throughout the country, forcing traveling students to enlist.
“Even if you had a draft deferment document from the army, if you were stopped by a military checkpoint of the government, they said rip it up, we’re drafting you immediately,” Goodman said to Newsmax. “If you were stopped by a rebel group, they said forget about going to school, we need you to fight on the front lines.”
Tens of thousands of students fled the country to avoid involuntary involvement with a war they do not believe in. These students, many who currently reside in refugee camps, are determined to continue their educations at all costs. They are prepared to leave behind everything they know in pursuit of an education.
“In our home, studying is holy,” a law student in Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan said to a correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The Syria Consortium aims to provide a means for Syrian students to safely pursue this goal. What it does not intend, though, is to provide refugees with permanent residence. Goodman is adamant that a primary goal of the consortium is to equip Syrian students to help rebuild their country when the war is over. He cites education as being foundational to reconstruction.
“The moment peace breaks out, education rebuilds,” Goodman said to Newsmax.
– Matt Berg
Sources: Chronicle, Al-Fanarmedia, Newsmax, IIE