Education Revolution in the Gulf

The governments of the Arabian Gulf states have long been planning for the post-oil era. The name of the resource from which their new wealth will flow is 'education'. The Arab ruling families are determinedly promoting the structural change from an oil-based economy to a knowledge-based economy with the goal of creating a knowledge-based society. The eight states neighbouring the Persian Gulf are witnessing an 'education revolution', with conscious links to the tradition of Islamic scholarship which flourished in the 8th-12th centuries CE, and which remains largely unknown in Europe. This guide describes for the first time the most important developments in tertiary education from Iraq, via Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, to Iran. At the same time it demonstrates that the visionary Sheikhs see German universities as potential partners in the transfer of knowledge and are prepared to enrich the dominant Anglo-American culture of the university sector with elements from the land of Humboldt.