The Ivory Tower Crumbles

I wrote a largely pessimistic article on the prospects of Lebanon maintaining its reputation as one of the Middle East's educational hubs in the 21st century. My argument, essentially, is that the newly minted Western universities in the Gulf -- benefiting from a stable political environment and spectacular amounts of wealth -- will supersede institutions like AUB and LAU within a generation.

In fact, a first draft of the piece was even more pessimistic than the final version. The conclusion read something like (paraphrasing):

"Dean Reardon-Anderson credits 'an extraordinary amount of wealth, extraordinary vision, and extraordinary determination or power' for the expansion of the new Gulf universities. 'This combination does not exist everywhere,' he notes. He may as well have added: it does not exist in Lebanon."

Ouch. The center of the action for Western universities opening branches in the Gulf is in Qatar's capital of Doha. However, Dubai and Abu Dhabi have also sponsored new universities. Does the revelation that Dubai holds a massive amount of debt make me glad that we eventually went with a less bombastic conclusion? Well -- it makes me think, at least. In opinion journalism, as well as business, sometimes it is wise to hedge one's bets.