Abstract
•The war in Yemen has significantly impacted human development.•The education process has adversely been impacted quantitatively and qualitatively.•The internal efficiency of the Yemen higher education has been thoroughly affected.•Uneducated and poorly educated youth is a good source for feeding violence.•The long-lasting armed conflict is jeopardizing the future of Yemen.
Yemen has witnessed decades of political unrest and the current armed conflict has significantly impacted human development. The economic activity has been severely disrupted which in turn affected the delivery of public services including the financing and operation of the higher education system (HE), where efficiency was negatively impacted.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the extent of which the internal efficiency of the Yemen HE has been affected. This will be achieved through analysing the main three domains of teaching and learning activities as well as the impacts of the adopted policies by HE management. Structured interviews with standardized closed-ended and open-ended questions were conducted online with 51 academics who have been purposely selected. Despite the devastating effects of the armed conflict, the HE has continued to perform its duties, providing space for learning and contributing effectively in social cohesion. Nonetheless, the education process has been impacted quantitatively and qualitatively.
Yemen has been deprived of its well-qualified human capital, and the brain-drain is still ongoing. The continuity of conflict will yield a generation who is either uneducated or poorly educated, and this will in turn continue feeding the violence and jeopardizing Yemen’s future.
This paper represents a first attempt to study the effects of Yemen’s armed conflict on HE. Future research should shed light on tracing students who abandoned education as well as the level of knowledge, skills and competencies of those lately graduated. The multi-dimensional effects of brain-drain are equally important.