Impact of Tempus on the Development of the Syrian Higher Education

Since 2002, TEMPUS has played an important role in Syrian higher education, with most of the higher education institutions participating in the Programme. Syrian active participation in TEMPUS commenced in 2002. By 2009, in total 35 projects had been implemented, of which 27 Joint European Projects (JEPs) and Joint Projects (JPs), and 8 Structural and Complementary Measures (SCMs) and Structural Measures (SMs) in addition to 65 Individual Mobility Grants (IMGs).

TEMPUS Programme in Syria had a significant impact on the modernization of curricula and teaching methods, and on quality assurance and the upgrading of facilities. It had an impact on staff development through the mobility programme. The quantitative outcomes of the programme refers to greater promotion of the Syrian and the European cooperation whether in higher education sector, or in other crucial sectors. More than 70% of TEMPUS projects in Syria covers the priority of curricula development, the rest, however, covers the institutional building priority. More than 3.5 million Euros were spent to buy equipments for the HE institutions in Syria, 3.5 million Euros were spent on staff costs and salaries, and 4.5 million Euros were spent for mobility from and to EU. In this regard, more than 300 academics and higher education administrators from Syria went to Europe, and the same number of EU academics came to Syria. More than 1000 mobility took place.

All TEMPUS projects contributed to the national priorities of higher education in Syria, however, with different level of contribution. The participation of the higher educational institutions in Syria was in average two institutions per project. The most supported national priorities were the establishment of new programs within existing institutions, and developing the existing curriculum, and implementing dynamic flexible rules for their continuous revision in response to social and market needs. The projects in total support the Ministry of Higher Education efforts of charting executive plans for the purpose of upgrading the skills of academic staff, and improving the enabling environment through the provision of the needed tools at the universities. However, looking at the very micro level for each of the individual Tempus projects, the fact is that none of TEMPUS represents all the national priorities of sector. In the opposite side, and from macro point of view, when looking at the projects as a whole (39 projects as a whole), TEMPUS Programme in Syria will be a very national programme in terms of responding to all priorities of the higher education sector. The programme, as whole, responses to the largest possible number of the higher education priorities and at the same time serves most Syrian universities.

Nevertheless, one of the most successful projects was JEP-321202004- in Quality University Management and Institutional Autonomy (http://www.qumia-tempus.edu.sy) the main aims of the project are to develop mission statement, high quality standards and evaluation procedures as instruments of quality management and organizational development at Damascus University established, with a high dissemination to other universities in the sector. In this regard, the project aims at developing and implementing adaptive strategies providing procedures of quality management, starting at the same time a systematic organizational development based on activities at structural levels of Damascus University undertaking dissemination and sustainability activities towards the other Syrian Universities, so the project connects both the political level in terms of guidance, support and development represented by the Syrian Ministry of Higher Education and the institutional level of universities. This project is of the most successful TEMPUS projects in Syria and it is clearly contributing to the whole capacity building not for Damascus University staff, but also to the other higher education institutions. The project output forms an input for many other projects in the higher education system. The most important outcome is that the project opened one of the main doors of the dialogue of quality within the higher education system in Syria, this dialogue which did not stop, but rather disseminated to every unit in our higher education institutions.

The office conducted an academic paper on the contribution of Tempus Programme to the development of higher education in Syria. This paper was presented by Dr. Rami Ayoubi in ICERI 2009 (International Conference of Education Research and Innovation) 16th – 18th Nov. 2009 Madrid, Spain.¹

1. for a full text go to http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/tempus/participating_countries/eval/syria_en.pdf