(The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Al-Fanar Media). An episode in the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria this month highlights how social sciences scholars could contribute to research on natural disasters, and the need for an Arab social research centre that would bring together the necessary expertise. After the quakes, news quickly spread that Turkey had temporarily restricted access to Twitter, before restoring citizens’ access to the social media platform after government talks with co ..read more

In partnership with two other universities, Palestine’s Birzeit University is seeking to develop graduates’ entrepreneurial skills, to enhance their capabilities and support their emerging startups as they struggle to become profitable. A project called “Digital Labs” is one of the latest such efforts. Digital Labs is a joint project with Palestine’s An-Najah National University and EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Arab Universities Support Startups to Stay Relevant in a Changing Labour Market Ran ..read more

As director of the Centre of Media Training, Documentation and Production at Cairo University’s Faculty of Mass Communication, Nashwa Akl keeps abreast of trends shaping the media industry to make sure students have skills in demand. The growth of digital media in particular has set greater challenges for students in terms of acquiring skills that go beyond the limitations of theoretical study, she told Al-Fanar Media.   “We seek to keep pace with the ongoing development in media practices at all levels, to preserve the principle of learning development, and to link trainees and partner i ..read more

Award-winning Egyptian writers and artists have been telling Al-Fanar how awards have boosted them personally and their craft generally. The Arab world has many awards celebrating achievement in many genres of creative work. These awards receive great attention, reflected in the high number of annual applicants and the controversy that sometimes accompanies the results. Amongst the most prestigious Arab awards for writers are the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), sometimes referred to as the “Arabic Booker”; the AlMultaqa Prize for Arabic Short Story; the Katara Prize for Arabic N ..read more

Saudi Arabia’s Subol platform, which wants to help students, graduates, and job seekers make better learning and career choices, recently invited users to explore more than 1,900 training opportunities on its site. The platform, which has been operating since 2019, is an initiative of the kingdom’s Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF). The 1,900 new opportunities recently announced on Subol are internships provided by employers in both the public and private sectors, said Noura Mohammed, the platform’s communication officer. Saudi Arabia’s Tamheer Training Scheme Helps Graduates Enter the ..read more

On November 30, the California research company OpenAI released an artificial intelligence chatbot called ChatGPT that can generate answers to questions, among other capabilities. Using the AI chatbot, anyone can enter a question and have a unique answer generated. This is different from an internet search, which identifies already existing text. ChatGPT draws upon available information and generates a unique response, including to multi-part and complex questions, along with references. There are limitations; however, these are likely to be addressed swiftly. Alongside amazement, these develo ..read more

University life is a time rich in opportunities for students who aspire to be global changemakers and help create a better world. Several international organisations sponsor activities that students around the world, including in the Arab region, can join as volunteers, teachers, or social innovators and entrepreneurs. In this article, Al-Fanar Media presents a short list of four such organisations. Hult Prize for Social Entrepreneurship The Hult Prize challenges young people to propose creative ideas for solving pressing world issues through social entrepreneurship. Every year, one team recei ..read more

Al-Fanar Media has been researching the many ways of studying archaeology in the Arab world, as well as the best job opportunities for archaeology graduates. The Arab world has many faculties of archaeology, such as those at Cairo University, the University of Mosul, and the University of Jordan. However, archaeology students and students-to-be often worry about what jobs await them in the labour market after graduation. Al-Fanar Media presents a brief review of the reality of studying archaeology in universities of the Arab world and the job prospects of archaeology schools’ graduates. While ..read more

A research project at Georgetown University Qatar is seeking to map “language landcapes” in Qatar and explore how language use intersects with aspects of culture and identity in the multiethnic country. Yehia Abdel-Mobdy Mohamed, an associate professor of Arabic, is leading the project, titled “Narratives of Language Landscapes in Qatar,” which is based in the university’s Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS). In a Zoom interview, Mohamed told Al-Fanar Media that the “lack of an introductory map of the reality of linguistic policies and their relationships with other sciences i ..read more

In an interconnected world facing common problems that recognise no boundaries, global citizenship concepts have become common topics at scholarly conferences and in educational discourses. However, many Arab schools rarely tackle these concepts. A recent study led by Naima Al-Husban, an associate professor of education at the Arab Open University, in Jordan, found that global citizenship concepts were only superficially integrated into Jordanian textbooks, “and this was done in a limited, unsystematic and inconsistent way with a reference to national or regional meanings rather than to a glob ..read more