Many of the young people who have been protesting in the streets of Arab cities in recent months are graduates. While lack of political freedom and democracy is the primary motivation for some of them, many are angry because of unemployment and lack of job opportunities. Millions of college graduates in the Arab world are either unemployed or underemployed. But who is to blame for this? The youth have directed their anger at their governments and ruling regimes for failing to improve their economies and create enough jobs. In fact, many Arab economies grew between 2000 and 2007, and thousands of new jobs were created. Most of these jobs, however, were created in the agricultural and service sectors and they don't require college degrees. Consequently, in recent years, the unemployment rate for graduates in many Arab countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Algeria has been higher than that for school leavers. Yet these disappointing job prospects have not diminished the growing appeal of a university education for most Arab youngsters. Perhaps we should blame the problem on urban youngsters and their families, who have become obsessed with higher education in the past three decades. In recent decades, the political pressure from middle-class urban families has forced authoritarian Arab governments to use a large portion of their education budget for higher education (universities) at the expense of primary and secondary education. This has been complemented with a rapid growth in the number of private universities and colleges which cater to the wealthier social classes. Initially, in the 1960s, the supply of university graduates in Arab countries was very limited and governments responded by investing in higher education. The graduates back then were in high demand and earned significantly higher wages than school leavers. Equally appealing to the college applicants and their families was the high social status and prestige that was associated with being a university graduate. Within a few years, demand for college education increased sharply among urban residents and the Arab governments found it politically expedient to respond to this growing demand by increasing the opportunities for higher education and its subsidies. Eventually, the supply caught up with the available jobs and, by the 1980s, many Arab countries began to suffer from rising unemployment among college graduates. Instead of responding to this problem by limiting college enrolment, the Arab governments tried to create additional public-sector jobs for graduates. But the situation became worse, as these governments faced severe budget deficits and realised that the policy of public-sector job creation was not sustainable. So they stopped creating new jobs and the number of unemployed graduates continued to grow. The cultural bias in favour of university degrees is so strong among urban classes of Arab countries that no politician or intellectual leader dares to call for limiting college enrolment. But who can single out the Arab countries, when many other developed and developing countries have a similar problem? Recently, US President Barack Obama said that he wanted the United States to have the highest percentage of university graduates in the world. Over-education (at the university level) has become a global epidemic and the situation is likely to get worse. Ironically, as the job market for graduates becomes more competitive, people tend to invest more in a university education. Those with degrees who cannot find a suitable job try to improve their appeal to employers by doing further studies. This inevitably leads to more and more job seekers with Masters degrees and PhDs. Employers respond to this by hiring the applicants with the highest college degrees, even if the job can easily be filled by someone who's far less educated. As some authoritarian Arab regimes fall and others concede more political power to their citizens, the populist calls for increasing the capacities of universities and colleges is likely to grow stronger. It takes courageous political leadership to speak out against these popular trends. Instead of going along with such demands, the Arab governments must try to reduce the college admissions in fields in which there is already an excess supply of qualified college graduates. Policymakers should also modify the employment regulations which discriminate in favour of graduates. In some countries, many relatively humble governmental posts require people with a college degree. Governmental pay and benefit scales also depend heavily on the level of education, rather than skill and productivity, again encouraging young people to go to university. Arab countries must launch cultural campaigns against the excessive prestige of university degrees, which often encourages graduates to look down on less educated people. For example, a skilled and successful plumber or mechanic often enjoys less social status than a college graduate working in a bank but earning less. The region needs a cultural campaign to improve the social value of skilled craftsmen and technicians who produce valuable goods and services but don't have a university degree.
