The Neglected Pillar of Recovery: A Study of Higher Education in Post-war Iraq and Libya

This thesis argues that higher education systems in post-conflict states have the potential to contribute towards more effective post-war reconstruction and recovery. However, while the role of Higher Education in Development was emphasised in the post-WWII era, the specific experience of higher education in post-conflict contexts has escaped the attention of both academics and policy-makers engaged in reconstruction. Furthermore, donor policy attention has not been placed upon utilising the resources of higher education in post-war recovery. The overall aim is therefore to address this gap in the literature by providing global analysis of higher education in post-war recovery. Firstly, a theoretical framework of the relationship between higher education and recovery was constructed in terms of the functions that higher education can perform in contributing to recovery, the features of the post-war environment that hinder or enable higher education, and various policy options available to post-conflict higher education. Secondly, two case-studies of Iraq and Libya were examined to explore the relationship between higher education and post-war recovery. Principally through interviews with academics and policy-makers from case-study countries, the thesis reveals a range of perspectives and voices on higher education during post-conflict recovery and transition. The thesis concludes that higher education should be conceptualised as an important pillar of recovery; the capacity of domestic higher education sectors in post-conflict contexts is an often under-recognised and under-utilised resource of considerable potential value that can connect to a wide range of reconstruction and recovery processes and effectively drive post-conflict recovery and transitions. Given the under-theorised and under-studied nature of higher education and post-conflict recovery the thesis operates in a theory-building mode and offers what is to date the first attempt to construct a global theorisation.