In the News

SciDev.Net featured IIE-SRF in a recent article on the effect of the Syrian crisis on the country’s professors and the role that universities globally play in providing these scholars with safe haven to continue their academic work. IIE-SRF Senior Research and Communications Manager James King was interviewed about IIE-SRF and the program’s efforts in response to the Syrian crisis. King comments, “We’re not only working to save lives, although that is the most important thing, we’re also saving minds and careers.” He adds, “To ignore that intellectual capital is to the peril of Syria and the Middle East as a whole. That expertise will be essential to rebuilding Syria one day.”

The Huffington Post recently featured a story about the impact of two IIE-SRF Fellows from Syria on their host university campuses in Salisbury, Maryland, where they continue their research. Dr. Adib Sha’ar specializes in computer engineering and has focused his research on detecting fraud in voting machines. A pharmacologist, Dr. Khaled Hasan researches the hormone leptin, with the potential to drastically lower the cost of blood pressure medications. The article highlights how these scholars and their stories have impacted IIE Trustee Mitzi Perdue and spurred her commitment to helping address the Syrian refugee crisis. As Ms. Perdue notes, “The reason I volunteer for IIE is because I believe so strongly in what they do…IIE-SRF knows that saving the lives of scholars means that two of the most important functions of civilization can be met: adding to our store of knowledge and teaching future students.”

Science Careers interviewed an IIE-SRF fellow of computer science from Syria. The scholar describes her career before the war in Syria, the escalation of the conflict around her, her decision to leave the country, and IIE-SRF’s role in helping her revive her academic career. She also addresses the special challenges that scholars face professionally when escaping violence in their home countries, commenting that they “need opportunities to rebuild their personal and professional lives.”

Of the more than four million Syrian refugees in the Middle East and North Africa, the Institute of International Education (IIE) estimates that as many as 450,000 are 18-22 years old. Of that group, it assumes based on prewar enrollment rates that 90,000 to 110,000 are qualified for university. More than four years into Syria's civil war, the number of displaced would-be university students may well be even higher.

The war has led to a breakdown of Syria’s educational system, and American scholars worry about the effect on the country’s future. In a joint report by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the University of California (UC), Davis, titled We Will Stop Here and Go No Further: Syrian University Students and Scholars in Turkey, the authors caution that if “successive age-cadres of Syrians are unable to continue their education, Syria will lose its future doctors, teachers, engineers, and university professionals.”

Human-rights organizations are calling on universities and governments worldwide to invest more in the education of the hundreds of thousands of student refugees who are fleeing war-torn regions of the Middle East. They warn that the countries in conflict risk losing a future generation of scientists, engineers, physicians, teachers and leaders — and that university-aged refugees who have found shelter elsewhere represent a crucial opportunity to reverse some of the lost intellectual capital.