In the News

When Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, Albert Einstein was in Pasadena, California, serving as a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology. And so he was not in Germany when Nazi officials ransacked his home, confiscated his property, and seized his bank accounts. Nor was he there when they stripped him of his affiliations with the German science academies, burned his books, and accused him of treason.

In an Indianapolis Star op-ed, IIE-SRF Chairman Mark Angelson and IIE President and CEO Allan Goodman state that "higher education is the most effective weapon against the lure of the extremists."

Voice of America-Turkish interviews IIE-SRF’s Senior Research & Program Officer James R. King about IIE’s efforts to support Syrian university professors and students during the current crisis, as well as its recent research on Syrian refugee access to higher education in Turkey. Interview is in Turkish.

Syrian refugee students face many challenges to continuing their studies in exile. Several programs are emerging that seek to assist refugee students to complete their university education. One such program is IIE's “From Camp to Campus” pilot project in Jordan, which will provide scholarships and supplemental support to Syrian university students living in the Za'atari refugee camp to complete their education at nearby universities.

"The tales are eye opening. Tear gas, birdshot and police brutality define vivid recollections of a revolutionary time, but this week brought a reminder that nothing has really changed. No, I [Alex] am not talking about the Civil Rights Movement and Ferguson, MO, but instead about the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring and his imminent release from jail after the charges against him for overseeing the deaths of 800 protesters were thrown out by a judge."

The continued closure of the University of Mosul raises concerns about the future of higher education in an ISIS-dominated Iraq.