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Dr. Alisa Rubin Peled is a senior lecturer in government at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya and an external faculty affiliate at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government’s Public Diplomacy Collaborative. She specializes in international political economy (with a focus on the Middle East), business-government relations, and international higher education. Alisa also serves as the founding academic director of the Argov Fellows Program in Leadership and Diplomacy, IDC’s honors program in government. She completed her Ph.D. in history and Middle Eastern studies at Harvard University and her M.A. in international economics and finance at Brandeis University. Alisa’s book The American Ivory Tower Overseas: Localization and the Rise of US Higher Education in the Arab World is forthcoming from Harvard University Press. Her first book, Debating Islam in the Jewish State (State University of New York Press, 2001), examines the development of Israeli policy towards the religious institutions of the state’s Muslim citizens.
Higher Education Reform in the Arab World: The Model of Qatar
Higher education—and its successful reform—is essential to the long term stability and prosperity of the Arab world. The youth uprisings which triggered the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt have highlighted the urgency of defusing the region’s ticking demographic time bomb: young, growing populations facing uncertain futures. To combat high unemployment and sluggish private sector growth, the Arab world must focus on building a knowledge society quickly in order to create three million more jobs annually than it currently generates, according to World Bank estimates.
