Higher Education in the Arab Region

The Arab region has suffered over a decade of extreme conflict, with significant repercussions for the development of higher education in conflict-affected countries. Yet higher education remains marginal to recovery debates in the region. This book addresses this gap through comparative analysis of five war-affected contexts: Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza. Based on extensive fieldwork and sustained policy engagement, it reveals how universities have endured protracted conflict, adapted under extreme constraints, and participated in reconstruction efforts-often with minimal external support. Challenging dominant approaches to post-conflict intervention, it foregrounds local agency, institutional adaptation, and nationally driven processes. It also documents the shift toward recognizing higher education as both a humanitarian concern and a developmental priority. This is the first study to position universities at the center of recovery discourse in conflict-affected Arab states. This is a Flip it Open title and may be available open access on Cambridge Core.