The American University of Kuwait (AUK) in collaboration with Dartmouth College will convene a conference of international scholars and educators March 10-12 to discuss the rapidly evolving state of higher education in the Arabian Peninsula. With a focus on how institutions are incorporating and adapting U.S. liberal arts models, the conference, “University Development and Critical Thinking: Education in the Arabian Peninsula for a Global Future,” is the outgrowth of a 2007 workshop on liberal education, sponsored by AUK and held at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Study and Conference Center at Bellagio, Italy.
 
Speaking that evening will be His Excellency Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwait Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs and patron of the conference, and Shaikha Dana Nasser Al-Sabah, Chairwoman of the AUK Board of Trustees. Jordan’s Prince El Hassan bin Talal will deliver the keynote address at the opening session at 6:30 pm on March 10.
 
Leaders and educators from the United States and across the GCC will participate in the conference, where they will address questions on what new universities need in order to thrive; what challenges they face; how trustees, presidents, and government officials exercise leadership in the complex realm of higher education; and how the U.S. liberal arts curriculum can be adapted to the cultural traditions and communities of the Arabian Peninsula. American educators will, in turn, address what their universities can learn from these adaptations, and how they can be used in broadening the scope of U.S. colleges and universities.
   
A partial list of institutions sending representatives to the conference include Kuwait University, the University of Bahrain, the Qatar Foundation, Zayed University (the UAE), the University of Nizwa (Oman), the Lebanese American University, United Arab Emirates University, the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations (London), the Council on Islamic Ideology (Pakistan), the University of Sharjah, and the Teagle Foundation (New York).

    
 
To register for the conference please fill in the registration form here: