Aversion to university education.. Enrollment at Sana’a University decreased by 80%

As the war in Yemen approaches its eleventh year, official data has shown an unprecedented decline in the number of people enrolled in university education, whether in areas controlled by the Houthis or in areas controlled by the internationally recognized government, as a result of the deteriorating economic situation, lack of job opportunities, and poor security and political conditions in this country.

Major public universities have closed a number of humanities departments due to the small number of students enrolled in them. The faculties of arts and education topped the list of this decline, which specialists described as “frightening and unprecedented.” The number of applicants to study at the Faculty of Education at Aden Government University for the academic year (2024-2025) was only 94 male and female students, distributed among 15 departments, at a rate of 6 students per department.

However, some departments had only one student enrolled, and more than half of the applicants were enrolled in only three departments: English, Computer Science, and Islamic Studies.

Similarly, data from the annual report of Sana’a University, which is under Houthi control and includes 19 colleges, shows that the number of students accepted for the 2022-2023 academic year reached 10,579 male and female students, while the number of those registered in the previous year was 57,668 male and female students, and the year before that was 58,025 male and female students.

This data reveals an unprecedented state of reluctance in major faculties within the university, as the number of students enrolled in the Department of History and International Relations in the Faculty of Arts reached only 4 students, while 7 students enrolled in the Department of Philosophy, and the number of students enrolled in the Department of French Language was 5 students, and the number of students enrolled in the Department of Arabic Language did not exceed 6, while the number of students enrolled in the college, which includes 12 departments, reached only 282 male and female students.

The same is true of the College of General Education, which is one of the largest colleges, as the number of students enrolled in it did not exceed 492 students, because there are thousands of graduates from previous years who did not obtain jobs, even though the education and health sectors were the sectors that absorbed the majority of university graduates. The data also shows that the number of students enrolled in the College of Physical Education did not exceed 13 students.

The same thing was recorded at Taiz University, where the number of students enrolled did not exceed 7,000 male and female students during the year 2022-2023, despite the fact that the number of those who obtained a high school diploma for the same year in the governorate reached 24,000 male and female students.

Aref Al-Saqqaf, a professor of business economics at the University of Aden, attributes the reasons for this decline to the deteriorating economic situation that has made many families unable to bear the costs of university education, as a result of the significant increase in the prices of goods and services and their need to reduce their budgets and focus on meeting basic needs.

The university professor also offers another justification for this decline, which is the feeling of frustration among some young people, as a result of the decline in employment opportunities after graduation, such that many now believe that university degrees no longer guarantee them stable jobs or rewarding salaries, expressing his belief that this “negative” view of university education makes some people hesitate to invest in long years of study without assurances of a future economic return.

However, specialists in the education sector in the areas controlled by the Houthis confirm that the suspension of employees’ salaries there for eight years and extreme poverty have pushed young people in those areas, which include about 60 % of the population, toYemeni officials confirm that there are about 100,000 employees in government-controlled areas who should have been retired more than ten years ago, but the Social Insurance Authority is unable to provide their salaries as a result of the Houthis seizing the Authority’s funds that were invested in treasury bills before the war, which has exacerbated the employment problem.

Source: Arab 22