The rush to obtain higher degrees!

One of the suspicious and illogical scientific phenomena in Yemen is the rush to obtain higher degrees (Masters/PhD) in Yemeni universities or in foreign universities known for their weak outputs and the large number of academic degrees they grant. Some may consider this phenomenon a scientific and research boom and an important elite prosperity, but the truth is that the reality of scientific research is deteriorating in Yemeni universities, which are witnessing the worst phase since their establishment, the post-war phase, where the interest of real researchers has decreased as a result of the difficult financial conditions, and the emergence of new climbers and aspirants from among officials and holders of positions in the state to strengthen their positions and justify their presence in the body of the state by the trick of their possession of academic degrees.

This rush is increasing among the leaders of the legitimate government and among the first-rank leaders of the Houthi militias, and its motives differ for each party. The motive of the legitimate leaders is to obtain positions higher than their reality and capabilities, while the Houthis are motivated to overcome the inferiority complex of the leaders who do not have secondary school certificates and have become at the top of the authority pyramid, and in order to shorten the gap formally between their qualifications and positions.

This rush remained hidden until two academic scandals occurred, the first at Aden University and the second at Sana’a University, at close times. The curtain was lifted on this phenomenon and its features became clear in a way that caused confusion and regret regarding scientific institutions that were platforms for enlightenment and knowledge, and became a source of frivolous influence and the pollution of violating the sanctity of scientific research and breaking its methodological laws.

One of the forms of academic mockery is forcing Sana’a University to grant Houthi leader Mahdi al-Mashat a master’s degree for his thesis “The September 21 Revolution and its Impact on the Republic of Yemen and the Region.” The problem does not lie in the title, which is intellectually, socially, and scientifically unacceptable; rather, it is the humiliation of the discussion committee and the undermining of the university’s long history by going to discuss the research in the Republican Palace and granting the student the degree. The most egregious of all is the story of the aforementioned person joining the program, as some sources reported that six files were submitted to the Department of Political Science at the College of Commerce in 2019 for the purpose of registering their owners in graduate studies. These files belong to al-Mashat, Ahmed Hamed, Daif Allah al-Shami, and others. When the department’s staff examined the files, they did not find university degrees for those mentioned in the documents within the files, so the department insisted on rejecting the request. Which prompted the aforementioned names to obtain forged university degrees from a private university and to repeat the process again after changing the staff of the previous department, and replacing it with another staff that succumbed to the pressures and completed the process. Not only that, there are precedents in this regard, such as Sana’a University being involved in granting more than four hundred militia leaders a master’s degree secretly before this scandal.

As for Aden University, it granted researcher Abdul Raouf Al-Saqqaf, Deputy Governor of Aden and member of the Southern Transitional Council, a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the College of Social and Human Sciences for his thesis “The Impact of Applying Artificial Intelligence in Achieving Sustainable Development in Industrial Companies: A Case Study of Aden Refinery”, although the thesis itself was submitted as an executive master’s graduation research in the College of Administrative Sciences for student Ali Al-Thawir. What is more horrific is that Dr. Ali Al-Zamki is the supervisor of the thesis and research and did not denounce the complete similarity to the point of copying between the research and the thesis, so Aden University realized the scandal and decided to cancel the award of the researcher the academic degree, prevent the supervisor from supervising theses at the university, and exclude the external examiner from discussing any thesis in the future at Aden University.

The witness in both stories is that the rush for academic degrees of this influential group in the two authorities indicates a change in the balances of the political and academic systems, and a destructive falsification that reveals an unprecedented political and academic cognitive and authoritarian downfall, with dire consequences for society and the state. I am not concerned here with denouncing that in the coup areas, as everything has fallen, including the universities, but we find the state of overwhelming rush embodied in the legitimate elite that is supposed to bear historical responsibility at a critical moment and confirm its worthiness and entitlement to lead a state of institutions in which there is a system, law, regulations, systems and logical equations emanating from the heart of the national battle that the people are waging under the leadership of that elite that is only concerned with obtaining degrees, buying loyalties, inflating expenses and corruption reaching the highest level under its management, which led to economic collapse and abject governmental failure in the Yemeni arena.

Two years ago, we heard that a senior military figure holding a high position in the legitimate national army announced that he had obtained a doctorate from an Arab university for a scientific thesis in political science that discussed the repercussions of the Israeli threat on the African continent, as if Yemen was enjoying peace that prompted the researcher to devote his scientific effort to that topic that deviated from the context of his country and the context of his position, which required him to fight the battle in the field and not to be preoccupied with obtaining a scientific degree.

In the same shameful mess, many of those affiliated with the legitimacy residing abroad, who receive allowances in dollars as activists, media professionals or journalists during the past years, have acquired higher degrees, so that their positions in support of legitimacy appear to stem from legal figures who have qualifications and are worthy of holding positions, and are preferred over all nationalists inside the country whose competencies and experiences do not match the eligibility requirement for someone who holds a higher degree. The person who issues the decision to appoint him does not know anything about his specialization or how he obtained it, and whether it is from a recognized university or from fictitious centers that trade in selling that illusion. The most important thing is that the title was attached to him verbally and at the bottom of his CV, so he became at the top of the list of interest by the country’s top leadership.

The consequences of the craziness of certificates will not stop here. What if their holders were granted appointments in universities, and this is not difficult for them? There are examples of this type who have become professors in universities without previous experience; while the top graduates and teaching assistants have been chasing appointment opportunities for years, and most of them have been unable to even complete their postgraduate studies due to financial incapacity and unemployment. If this is the real situation of qualified researchers and unemployed teaching assistants, as an eyewitness confirms that academic achievement is witnessing a suspicious desertification due to the state’s neglect of this aspect, a state that is run by corrupt, ignorant failures with forged certificates and suspicious and superficial qualifications.