The financial and administrative independence of Yemeni universities for the sake of comprehensive, sustainable and integrated educational development

Abstract

The vision is a proposal to define the concept of academic independence in universities, and to identify its legal principles and controls. To achieve this, the descriptive library approach was used, which relies on collecting studies, reports, documents, and experiences from different sources, analyzing them, and criticizing them. The vision was also limited to the subject of academic independence. In its modern concept, which is directly related to the emergence of universities, and the development of their thought in general.

The problem of the vision lies in the existence of a violation of academic freedom in some Arab universities without the availability of legislative systems that protect their employees, which led to the creation of an academic climate that is inappropriate for the growth of creative knowledge and building self-confidence for the professor and the student alike, and this resulted in the non-disclosure of the truth , and the lack of free research and discovery about it, and perhaps this explains the lack of distinction of many Arab universities compared to its counterparts from other universities that may be less ancient than it, and perhaps the underlying reason behind the migration of creative Arab minds to foreign universities that respect the mind, appreciate scholars, praise their efforts, and motivate Their innovations, and celebrates their scientific and intellectual achievements.

Based on this, the results of the research showed that the concept of academic independence is represented in the administrative and financial independence of colleges and universities to be able to conduct their affairs without external interference, and it also means that professors enjoy the freedom of teaching, research, expressing opinions, and participating in making academic decisions related to their specialties.

And it appeared that the legal principles of academic independence are governed by decisions issued by international organizations, the most important of which is the draft global declaration that was ratified by the countries of UNESCO in 1998 in Article 2 entitled “The Moral Role, Independence, Responsibility, and the Function of Anticipation.” The draft stressed the need for the commitment of higher education institutions and members The teaching staff in it ensures several things, including the preservation and development of their basic functions, dedicating all their activities to ethical and scientific accuracy, expressing opinions regarding social problems with all independence and responsibility, and exercising the intellectual authority that society needs to guide it to thinking, understanding, and action, and strengthening their critical functions through Analyzing emerging economic, cultural and political trends, and then playing the role of an observatory that is capable of forecasting, early warning and prevention, and harnessing their intellectual capabilities and literary stature to defend human values, and striving to spread them, including the values of peace, justice, independence and equality.

The vision revealed several challenges facing traditional universities, foremost of which is the rapid spread of private universities inside and outside borders, and the proliferation of universities that offer their programs on the World Wide Web across the continents of the world, in addition to the relinquishment of some universities from some of their programs to be run by other universities, which is known as twinning. International universities have also opened branches in other countries, and have become competitive with traditional universities.

This means the transformation of universities from being universities with legal sovereignty to universities run by several parties across the continents of the world by means of communication and information technology. This approach limits the independence of colleges and universities, and undoubtedly impedes the freedom of thought of its employees, as institutions of higher education have been subjected to the needs of the economic market, or what is called the knowledge economy and its requirements, after they enjoyed complete independence in directing their programs and preparing their outputs to serve their societies in various aspects of knowledge.

It has also been shown that academic independence is governed by several controls, including the non-utilization of intellectuals who are granted independence from the privileges of their literary position in the college or university in raising issues or topics that may lead to social, political, or sectarian violence, or spreading corruption. Moral, or encourage behavioral deviation, or breach of national security. The researcher concluded the vision with several recommendations, it is hoped that Arab universities will work to activate them.