Current Threats and Implications for the Future of Higher Education in Afghanistan

• In Event: Higher Education in Closing Spaces

Proposal

Threats from political and ideological groups to higher education institutions (HEIs) are on the rise in Afghanistan, making the country home to one of the most closed spaces for higher education (HE) in the world. Banning access to HE for particular groups, increasingly ideological curricula, attacks on academic freedom, and a highly centralized HE system are some of the major threats that undermine the core functions of HEIs to teach, research, do service, and prepare students for the labor market in a fear-free environment. Besides these and other threats, HEIs continue to employ various strategies to remain resilient, but shorter- and longer-term solutions are needed to make HEIs in Afghanistan just, free, and accessible to all.

Political/ideological states and non-state actors use curriculum as a principal threat against each other. The Taliban introduced and increased more subjects of Islamic Sharia in all program curricula, including in medical and engineering faculties. With the introduction, they brought pro-Taliban ideologically oriented faculty. It is evident that the centralized system created during the 20th century that deteriorated during the war and conflict is no longer responsive to the expansion, quality, labor market, and knowledge-driven economy of Afghanistan and the globalization forces of the world. This highly centralized system has allowed the current regime in Afghanistan to control all aspects of higher education according to their ideologies and limit the power of protest by the higher education community, including faculty and students.

Methods
Our research is informed by the over a decade of the authors' work in HE in Afghanistan, policy analysis, and discussions with key informants (HE leaders, policymakers, administrators, and faculty). We conducted several interviews with key informants and will continue conducting more interviews and three focus groups over the next three months. We are using strategic relationships and purposeful and snowball sampling to identify key informants. While research is ongoing, our initial findings include the following recommendations:
1. Establishing female only colleges or universities is an option in the interim to provide a conducive learning opportunity and quality education for women in Afghanistan.
2. Open or distance education is the fastest-growing type of education that, with the help of technology, can be brought to learners, especially women, in their homes.
3. Affirmative action would provide equitable access to HE for female students once the access ban is removed.
4. Institutional autonomy: Giving greater academic, financial, and administrative autonomy to public HEI to improve academic freedom, allow HEI to admit their own students, hire their own faculty, and generate funds from non-government sources.
5. Scholarships for students to attend private universities and for faculty for capacity development and advanced education.

We will review these recommendations in our upcoming focus groups to discuss their feasibility given the current situation in Afghanistan. The groups will also yield more recommendations to be added to this list. We will closely watch the rapidly changing political climate in Afghanistan and assess our recommendations accordingly between now and the conference date.

Authors

• Mujtaba Hedayet, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Hassan Aslami, University of Massachusetts Boston