An Overview of the Palestinian Higher Education

Studies that influence our understanding of the Palestinian Higher Education sector nowadays could be attributed to either; a “compilation of raw data” aggregated by International nongovernmental agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank in addition to the annual statistics report issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE) or the few studies conducted by individual researchers. These studies tend to focus on tangible aspects of higher education and serve the interest of its stakeholders. The Higher Education in the Palestinian territories refers to the educational system governing the tertiary education institutions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These include; traditional universities, universities colleges; community colleges and an open university. The majority of the Palestinian higher education institutions are referred to as public; yet in recent years we have witnessed the emergence of few private universities as well as governmental universities. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) supervise two university colleges in the West Bank and one community college in Gaza strip. Thus there is an emerging need of an academically rigor studies to enrich our knowledge of the higher education sector in the Palestinian territories. This article presents an insight into the Palestinian Higher Education system with special emphasis on the role conveyed by the Palestinian universities as not only centers of learning but symbols of national identity; the political obstacles imposed on the Palestinian universities; the Palestinian Higher Education institutions in 2012 and finally the demographics of the Palestinian students.