Bulletin: Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students in Egypt; 5th Arab Forum for Cultural Heritage Held in Sharjah – Al-Fanar Media
Egypt’s Council of Private Universities has announced a final call for applications for the Dr. Ali El-Moselhy Memorial Scholarship for high school graduates from public, experimental, STEM, and Nile schools (first-year students) who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement and are from disadvantaged family backgrounds.
Funded by Nasser Social Bank, the scholarships cover full tuition fees, student housing, and meals for four to five years of undergraduate study at participating private universities. Eligible majors include medicine, nursing, veterinary medicine, computer science and artificial intelligence, agriculture, business administration, tourism, and arts and design.
Participating universities are King Salman International University, Assiut Private University, South Valley Private University, Sohag Private University, New Valley Private University, and Luxor Private University.For more details and information on how to apply, click here.
More than 1,000 Egyptian scientists have been included in the 2025 edition of Stanford University’s list of “World’s Top 2% Scientists”, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has announced. This prestigious list, published in collaboration between Stanford University and Elsevier, highlights leading scientists based on citation impact and research output.
According to the ministry, 1,106 Egyptian scientists were included in the latest edition of the list for excellence in scientific production, while 579 Egyptian scientists appeared in the 2024 edition. Abeer El-Shater, Assistant Minister of Higher Education for Technical Affairs, confirmed that this year marks significant progress in Egypt’s presence on the list.
The Stanford-Elsevier list compares scientists within their respective subfields to avoid citation bias across disciplines. The top 2 percent of scientists in each field are then selected using a composite index, ensuring fair representation of all scientific specialties.
London Business School (LBS) has announced its strong performance in three recent global or regional rankings, including classifications issued by Bloomberg Businessweek, QS Quacquarelli Symonds, and LinkedIn.
Bloomberg Businessweek ranked LBS fourth in Europe and the Middle East among business schools that offer an MBA, marking the seventh consecutive year it has maintained a top-five position in the region. In addition, the school’s MBA programme ranked sixth worldwide in the QS MBA Rankings 2026, while it secured tenth place in LinkedIn’s ranking of the Top 100 MBA programmes worldwide.
The school also continued to perform strongly in entrepreneurship rankings, placing tenth globally in the PitchBook 2025 ranking of universities producing startup founders with MBAs who successfully raised venture capital investments over the past decade.
The Fifth Arab Forum for Cultural Heritage, held in Sharjah, concluded this week with a closing session titled “Policy Development for the Preservation of Inclusive Heritage” that highlighted collective insights and recommendations developed over the forum’s three days.
Moderated by Awad Saleh, director of the Culture Department at the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), the panel featured contributions from distinguished cultural policy and program management experts.
Injee Kim, a programme officer at Unesco’s regional office in Qatar, outlined the role of international organisations in shaping fair and inclusive heritage policies. Souayibou Varissou, a heritage specialist with the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), highlighted his organisation’s efforts in fostering regional cooperation. Maamoun Saleh Abdulkarim, an independent expert with Unesco and a former Director General of Antiquities and Museums in Syria, addressed the practical challenges of safeguarding heritage in conflict zones. Fouad Mahdaoui, chairman of the Memory of the World Committee in Morocco, stressed the need to align national legislation with international agreements.
QatarDebate Center recently hosted the second Debaters for Change Roundtables in New York, coinciding with the United Nations General Assembly. According to a news release, the event brought together over 150 young debaters from more than 40 American and Canadian universities to discuss multiculturalism and the role of evolving institutions in a rapidly changing world.
Discussions on the theme of how to prepare students to shape a better future explored ways to adapt education systems to meet future demands and cultivate generations equipped for innovation and critical thinking. Participants stressed the need to move from rhetoric to tangible actions that promote fairness, justice, and renewed trust in the global order.
The session concluded that progressive education is vital in today’s world, with participants unanimously agreeing that investing in education reform is a direct investment in building a more sustainable and just future.
The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) has expressed “grave concern” over actions the University of Kentucky has taken against a law professor, Ramsi Woodcock, following his public statements on Palestine and calling for international military action against Israel.
In a letter to the university’s president and law school dean, MESA said Woodcock was barred from teaching and entering the law school while under investigation for comments criticising Israel’s actions in Gaza. MESA said this disciplinary action violates both academic freedom and free speech protections, and could set a dangerous precedent for punishing faculty whose views on Palestine are deemed objectionable. The association urged the university to immediately reinstate Woodcock and drop all disciplinary investigations against him.
The university has responded that it had an obligation to investigate serious allegations against a professor and was within its rights “to take interim measures—such as a reassignment in this case; he was not suspended—while that investigation is being conducted”.
Two studies by Birzeit University scholars, each involving Abdalrahman Kittana, an assistant professor of architecture, as a co-author, have won second and third prizes in the Palestinian National Library’s Research and Studies Award for the 2024-2025 academic year, the university has announced.
The theme of the contest, in its second year, was “Documenting Cultural Destruction in the Zionist War of Genocide on the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023: The Struggle over Identity, Memory, and Violations of International Laws.” The top prize went to the independent researcher Mohamed Al-Shami for a study titled “Traditional Crafts and Industries Revived by Gazans during the Genocidal War on the Gaza Strip”.
The Birzeit scholars’ prize-winning papers re-examined two historic buildings in Gaza City that have been destroyed through war and neglect in years past and during the current conflict. The paper that won second prize, by Professor Kittana and the engineer Manar Assaf, reconceptualised the Khan al-Zeit building in Old Gaza City, which was gradually demolished between 1914 and the 1970s.
Another paper co-authored by Professor Kittana, this time with the engineer Malak Afana, was one of two that shared third-prize honours. Kittana and Afana’s paper re-examined the Pasha Palace complex, showing that it originally consisted of four buildings, not just two. It presented an architectural concept for the main facades, offering a reference for any future reconstruction of the palace, which was almost completely destroyed during the recent war.
The other third-place winner was a paper by Luy Abu Sa’ud titled “Erased History: The Destruction of the Great Omari Mosque and Its Impact on Global Cultural Heritage”.
Social Capital 2026, 26–28 March 2026, Heriot-Watt University Dubai. Organised by the International Social Capital Association (ISCA), this gathering will bring together leading scholars, practitioners, and policymakers from around the world to examine the crucial role of social capital in building resilient and prosperous societies. The conference aims to establish a new global platform for research and dialogue on social capital, to advance knowledge, practice, and policy in the field. Registration will open in October 2025. Scholars and practitioners who would like to present their work may submit abstracts of through the deadline of 3 October 2025.
Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth 2025, 5–12 October 2025, Sharjah. The 12th edition of the festival will screen more than a dozen features, documentaries and short films at Al Qasimia University Theater. Several prominent artists will attend, and awards will be presented at a closing ceremony.
GESS Dubai 2025, 11–13 November 2025, Dubai. The 18th edition of the Global Educational Supplies and Solutions exhibition and conference (GESS Dubai 2025) will focus on the role of AI, well-being initiatives, and sustainable learning environments in shaping the region’s education sector. Taking place at Dubai World Trade Centre, GESS Dubai 2025 will be co-located for the first time with Education Investment MENA, providing a comprehensive platform for educators, policymakers, and investors to explore the education business sector’s rapid growth and innovation.
THE Arab Universities Summit 2025, 25-27 November 2025, Amman. Organised by the British company Times Higher Education (THE), the summit will focus on the role of universities in driving societal progress through applied research, knowledge transfer, and the celebration of cultural diversity. Highlights will include the unveiling of the 2025 edition of THE’s Arab University Rankings and the winners of the prestigious THE Awards Arab World 2025, recognising excellence and achievement in the sector.
Egyptian Knowledge Bank Workshops. Free online workshops are now available for undergraduate students, researchers, and faculty members. View the schedule here.
‘Free to Think 2025’: Attacks on Higher Education Rise, Even in Democracies
“Free to Think 2025”, the latest in an annual series of reports from the Scholars at Risk network, highlights a trend of rising assaults on academic freedom around the world, in both authoritarian states and traditionally liberal democracies. These include “unprecedented” attacks on higher education in the United States, where leaders have cracked down on student and faculty expression, banned the study of disfavoured topics, and targeted scholars for what they teach.
Overall, the report documents 395 attacks on higher education in 49 countries between July 2024 and June 2025. It also provides updates on the dire situation for higher education in Palestine, where Gaza’s higher education infrastructure has been largely destroyed by ongoing Israeli military operations, and access to higher education in the West Bank has been severely obstructed. War has also devastated the higher education sector in Sudan, where university infrastructure has been destroyed and the vast majority of faculty and students have been displaced. Read more here.
Partnerships: Al-Fanar Media Participates in Unesco Panel on Media Literacy
Al-Fanar Media participated in a regional talk organised by the Unesco Office for the Gulf States and Yemen, based in Doha, that focused on media and information literacy in an age of artificial intelligence. The panel discussion, called “Empowering Communities with AI, Media Literacy, and Communication”, was part of a Unesco initiative that aims to teach people to “think critically and click wisely” when engaging with media content, to protect themselves from the growing sources of AI-generated misinformation online.
As Arab university students get busy with their academic lives, they should keep in mind that participating in extracurricular activities can boost their soft skills, help them develop latent talents, and benefit their lives at school and after graduation. Explore more in this article.
This episode of Al-Fanar Media Podcast offers school and university students advice on effective study techniques to help them reach their academic goals. The episode is presented by Mohammad El Hawary, Al-Fanar Media’s editor-in-chief. He walks us through valuable insights shared by our colleague Ahmed Wafik in his article “Get the Most Out of Studying at Home: Tips for University Students”, published on our website.
Oxford Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarships. The University of Oxford is now accepting applications for the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarships and Leadership Programme, which support outstanding graduates and professionals from emerging economies who wish to undertake a master’s degree at Oxford. Citizens of all Arab countries, with the exception of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, are eligible to apply. The scholarships cover all fees and offer additional support for academically outstanding candidates who demonstrate clear leadership potential and a commitment to contributing to the development of their home countries. Explore details of this award and other scholarships available to Arab students on Al-Fanar Media’s scholarship database.
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