Education in Aleppo University a Victim of War

By Lina al-Hakim*

(Aleppo, Syria) – Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising, many of Aleppo University’s students took to the streets with their pens and their voices chanting for freedom and the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. When violence and conflict spread to Aleppo in August 2012, the 2012-2013 academic year became yet another victim of war. Some students were displaced, some joined the ranks of the armed opposition, and others suffered persecution at the hands of the security forces, forcing them to leave the country.

The grade lists of this year’s final exams, which ended in mid-July, reveal an absence rate of over 30 per cent in most departments. In the faculty of medicine, 980 of 3,215 registered students were absent, around 30.5 per cent. In the faculty of pharmacy, 626 of 1,695 were absent, a rate of around 37 per cent. In the faculty of engineering, 872 of 2321 were absent, or about 37.6 per cent of the students.

Ahmad, a volunteer media activist with the opposition, had to interrupt his studies at the faculty of engineering because of the university’s location in a government-controlled area. He is unable to access it since he is wanted by the security forces.

Ahmad admits that he paid a very high price for his opposition to the regime.

“I will continue working with the uprising to topple the regime and I will marry my fiancée who has been waiting for me for a year,” he said.

Ahmad says that he depends on the money sent to him by his family, which has sought refuge in Turkey and receives aid from the Turkish government.

“My debt has reached around 2000 [US] dollars,” he added.

Fouad is a mechanical engineering student who left the country in his third year of study. He was supposed to have graduated this year. Fouad, who is one of the founders of the university coordination committee, was arrested and released at the beginning of the protests in 2011. He then left to Saudi Arabia in November of that year, and now lives there unemployed and cut off from his studies.

“Universities in Saudi Arabia are expensive and my family is facing a financial crisis.  I should have graduated this year and been an engineer and proposed to my beloved who is still waiting for me in Aleppo. Yet here I am with no future,” he said.

Ayman is a chemistry student at the faculty of science. He currently resides in the Turkish city of Gaziantep. When security forces summoned him before his mid-term examinations in January, he left to Turkey immediately and now works at a shoe factory for 150 Turkish Liras per week (approximately USD 77).

“I suffered a lot before I got this job. I have no residency papers in Turkey. I don’t even have a passport. I came here illegally and without a university degree,” he said.

Ayman says with dismay that some uneducated workers are higher ranking than him because they had been working in the industry before they sought asylum.

“I wish I didn’t spend my life studying and instead learned a trade. This would have served me better today than my education,” he added.

In addition to opposition students who had to stop their studies at Aleppo University, there are many who did not participate in opposition activities but have fled the death and economic crisis in Syria. They have been unable to return to take their exams.

Mohammad, a second year student at the faculty of business and economics, left Syria for Europe this year after his father stopped working and the family income ceased. (Mohammad refused to name the country because of the small size of the Syrian community there, which could reveal that he had spoken to the Damascus Bureau).

His relatives secured work for him at a clothing factory for 600 Euros per month (approximately USD 780).

“I cannot go back,” he said. “My family needs my income. If I had been able to finish my education I would have had better employment opportunities. I am thankful though, because others are still looking for work in vain.”

Abdelrahman is an electrical engineering student with seven courses left before he graduates. He travelled to Egypt with his family and worked at a communications company for a short while, then as a private math tutor. He is now unemployed.

“I couldn’t register at another university here because transferring would set me back two years,” he said. “This is difficult, since I almost have my diploma in my hands.” Abdelrahman hopes he can take his exams in Syria during the supplementary semester in September, which will be held under a Presidential decree issued in July.

Students who were able to sit for exams fare little better. In light of the circumstances, the periodic interruptions of water and electricity, and the constant risk of becoming a missile’s collateral damage, studying and taking exams is no easy feat. Power outages hinder practical and laboratory coursework, and students must make do with theoretical study in faculties of applied science.

A professor in Aleppo University who refused to reveal his name and the faculty in which he teaches expressed sorrow at the current state of the university.

“These conditions are not conducive to teaching. The delay in the start of the academic year has led to pressure in courses and a leniency in examination questions and grading. This makes students care little for in-depth study. The standard of education has dropped significantly,” he explained.

The professor says that decrees to hold exceptional examinations has led to a dramatic decline in the recognition of Syrian diplomas worldwide. He says that because many professors and administrative staff have left Syria, the university lost its specialists and was forced to assign professors for courses that do not completely match their areas of expertise.

“This has made many courses lose their scientific value. Ultimately, it is the student who loses,” he said.

*Lina al-Hakim is the pseudonym for a journalist living in Syria.