You are here

Brain circulation

Apr 23,2018 - Last updated at Apr 23,2018

I was lucky to attend last week a symposium at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a lecture at Harvard University. Talal Abu Ghazaleh was a keynote speaker and the topic to task was knowledge economy, one of His Majesty King Abdullah’s favourite pursuits in Jordan.

I captured the opportunity to meet with intellectual elites from around the world, and from the Arab countries in particular. The Arab students at the both renowned universities were keen to interact with the Arab world. They feel that the space of maneuverability allowed for them in their own countries is limited, and in some cases virtually non-existent. 

Mashael, a Saudi lady with a master’s degree in space technology, believes that she can help, but feels that until recently, the window of opportunity for her in the Arab world is completely and firmly locked. She runs a company experimenting with horizontal launching. Despite her team’s success in demonstrating their competence, it is only recently that she began to be viewed seriously and not merely as a rich girl toying with high-tech gadgets. 

Rana Dajani, a molecular biochemist and a professor at the Hashemite University, demonstrated a high command of a new-age science frontier and managed to be at the avant-garde of this knowledge. She published pioneering articles in leading scientific journals, and managed on the side to help many women overcome their constraints and reach their potential. 

I sat with Egyptians, Emiratis, Jordanians, Lebanese, Moroccans, Saudis, Syrians and Tunisians. They all carry the same “paradoxical” notion: Should we stay here and forget home, or shall we go home and compromise our chances of a rich future? 

A student from Lebanon told me that she did not like the term brain drain. It signifies a deterministic path where such beautiful minds are considered lost to us in the Arab World forever. She said, with ICT (Information Communication Technology) we can keep contact with those students alive. Thus, their brains can be circulated between the Arab world and the United States or any other country, where such Arab talents exist. We should put this idea into practice and Abu Ghazaleh promised to do that in cooperation with Arab students and alumni associations at MIT and Harvard and the administrations of both universities.

Yet, we must be aware of the fact that the future does not hold much promise of access to the Ivy League and other distinguished universities. According to Yazan Baara, a Jordanian student who studies mechanical engineering at MIT, he was the only undergraduate Arab student to be accepted in MIT in the last two years.

Thus, we have to look for solutions to circumvent this constraint by benefiting from the IT capabilities and facilities to be privy to the most advanced knowledge in the various fields of scientific endeavour.

Although it was a three-day visit, excluding flying time, I came back much richer and greatly thankful to the invitation to be a party to these meetings.

up
42 users have voted.


Newsletter

Get top stories and blog posts emailed to you each day.

PDF