Tomorrow Today

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Urban planning departments and schools in Gulf universities

were established under the umbrella of engineering colleges. More

paradoxically, schools of architecture were never independent and

were seen as entities within civil engineering. This is still the case

at University of Bahrain and Sultan Qabous University, the offi-

cial government university in Oman. Qatar recently established a

new department of architecture and urban planning to replace the

traditional one, which was dominated by civil engineers. Kuwait

University, pressured by the American accreditation agencies,

is changing the identity of its school of architecture from archi-

tectural engineering to architecture supported by urban design.

United Arab Emirates is also an interesting case. The State has

two of the most accelerated centers of urban growth in the Middle

East: Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Teaching of planning and architecture

was previously limited to UAE University in Al Ain. Later three

more schools were added at Sharjah and Ajman.

(In addition, the

American University in Sharjah (AUS), the University of Sharjah

and Ajman University opened departments of design and architec-

ture.) Architecture is the principal focus of the four programmes at

UAE University. Courses related to planning or sustainable devel-

opment are limited or in some cases non-existent.

Oman is considered a unique case within the Gulf States devel-

opment race during the last decade. The development strategy of

Oman is based on environmental tourism in addition to oil profits.

The country is blessed with a variety of natural treasures, which the

country’s rulers and their advisors were clever enough to acknowledge

as a driving force for the country’s prosperity. The only school of

architecture is again contained within the civil engineering depart-

ment. Three years ago, Qabous University decided to apply for

American accreditation. As was the case at UAE University, they have

selected the accreditation body responsible for engineering programs

(ABET). The result is a drift away from architecture and planning and

a move towards engineering programmes. Planning, urban design and

sustainability courses do not exist in the current programmes.

Sustainability awareness

The United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable

Development (DESD) is characterized as a political initiative that

could strengthen international cooperation towards the develop-

ment and sharing of innovative ESD activities and policies.

The overall goal of the DESD is the integration of the principles,

values and practices of sustainable development (SD) into all aspects

of education and learning to encourage changes in behavior. It

emphasizes the importance of partnerships in the eventual success

of the DESD and outlines how these might contribute at all levels –

community, national, regional, international, continental and global.

The DESD at the national level tends to provide an opportunity for

refining and promoting the vision of and transition to SD, through

all forms of education, public awareness and training. The imple-

mentation of SD is important for all formal, non-formal and informal

activities, also in higher education.

Many higher education institutions in the region have not yet fully

responded to this major challenge of our time by making sustainabil-

ity central to the critical dimensions of university life: curriculum;

research and scholarship; operations; community outreach, partner-

ships and service; student opportunities; and institutional mission

and structure.

There is a notable presence of ESD in national policy documents of

the GCC countries. The majority of them address broadening partici-

pation in ESD and its integration in curricula. ESD is

mainly integrated in national educational policies and

curricula, especially in primary and secondary education

but also in sustainable development and environmental

strategies.

However, most countries do not yet have specific

national ESD policies or strategies. Specific policies that

support informal and non-formal learning in the context

of SD are not reported (which is not to say that they do

not exist in countries and regions that stress the impor-

tance of community participation and multi-stakeholder

social learning).

ESD teaching and research in Gulf universities is not

very well developed. The vast majority of the countries

lack programmes in ESD and do not report support for

ESD innovation and capacity-building. ESD-related

research that takes place is mostly focused on teaching

and research in topics related to ESD.

As ESD practice is on the rise, there is an increased

need for ESD quality assessment. Many of the existing

ESD quality assessment schemes (e.g. the develop-

ment of ESD indicators) are supported by international

bodies rather than by national governments, and inno-

vations in teaching and learning are still in their early

stages. Curriculum development activities should be at

the forefront of research and development of these new

forms of teaching and learning and the kinds of curric-

ula, learning environments and school-community

relationships that will allow such learning to flourish.

At the same time, educational policies and support

mechanisms that allow for more integrated forms of

teaching and learning are lacking.

Moving towards change

While sustainability is becoming popular in both insti-

tutional and professional realms in the Gulf, the case is

different in schools of planning and architecture. ESD

is almost absent in Gulf States universities. This puts

pressure on education authorities in the Gulf to redirect

both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes to

consider ESD and its impact on pedagogical strategies.

ESD is based on the idea that communities and educa-

tional systems within communities need to dovetail their

sustainability efforts. Gulf States have made great strides

in their efforts to develop their societies. These include

creating a modern economic infrastructure and upgrad-

ing their educational systems. This ‘revolution’ in the

quantitative levels of education, however, suffers from

qualitative deficiencies. The types of academic learning

and technical training are not geared toward the require-

ments of sustainable society. These states need to develop

sustainability goals, and their educational systems should

move towards modifying existing curricula to reinforce

those goals. The experience of the Gulf universities

shows that many institutions have not developed sustain-

ability goals or action plans on which to base educational

change. An important priority for these states is the

development of sustainability goals, and the modification

of existing educational curricula to reinforce those goals.