Career services in Syrian higher education

Abstract

This chapter describes and discusses the linkages between the higher education sector and the labour market in the Syrian Arab Republic (henceforth Syria). It opens with an overview of the Syrian political and economic background that has its impact on career guidance services offered in the sector. This has to be taken into consideration in light of the movement in the Syrian economy towards a social market economy resulting in a focus on the demand side of the labour market in the economic development. The chapter focuses on the commitment of the Syrian government and the higher education sector in particular, at least at top senior levels, to engage employers in “organic and new relations … through participation in teaching, training, qualification, operation and deciding policies and educational programmes” (10th Five-Year Plan, 2006, p. 26). It then proceeds to discuss the various measures taken, with international donor funding, at the level of the Ministry of Higher Education and the Syrian universities in order to translate such statements into tangible outcomes. The challenges hindering such transformation will then be highlighted, as will be the way the current war in Syria has badly affected the possibility of any serious outcome in this area. Finally, the chapter concludes by offering some reflections on the way forward.