Scientific and Technological Human Capital Development
in the Islamic world ……A call for Action
Wagdy A. Sawahel, B.Sc., Ph.D., CBiol, MIBiol., EurProBiol
General Coordinator, Science Development Network
External/eminent scientist member of the general committee for IDB
Merit/M.Sc scholarship programme and IDB Merit scholar
National Research Center
Tahrir St., Dokki
Cairo, Egypt
E-mail:
Summary
Countries that are predominantly Muslim are characterized by low spending on science, small scientific communities, and poor-quality universities. The 57 predominantly Muslim countries have about 23 % of the world's total population but less than 1% of its scientists who generate less than 5 % of its science and make barely 0.1 % of the world's original research discoveries each year. The Islamic countries have a negligible percentage of patent registrations in US, Europe and Japan. Even more serious is the fact that the Research and Development manpower of Muslim countries is only 1.18% of the total science and technology manpower.
In addition, the OIC countries have about 600 universities in total compared to 1,000 in Japan, including 120 in Tokyo alone. The OIC universities produce 500 science PhDs each year; in contrast, the United Kingdom alone produces 3,000. Of the world's top 500 universities 2003 survey, only two are in OIC member states (both in Turkey), but no single university from the Islamic world was chosen in 2004 survey. The OIC region, as a whole needs at least 12000 universities. The rate of enrollment in higher education for Muslim is fully 45 % lower than that for the Third World countries, a state of affairs that could be regarded stunning.
Furthermore, Whereas Japan, the United States, Germany, and other Western countries spend 2 % - 4% of their gross domestic product (GDP) annually on research; no Muslim country spends more than 0.5 % of its (much lower) GDP on research. The annual budget of the University of Singapore’s science and technology departments is equal to one-half of the combined annual budgets for science and technology departments in all 600 universities in OIC member states !!
The above-mentioned facts make us no wonder…. why most Muslim countries fall under poor and developing countries. It indicates clearly that there is a dearth of science and technology manpower and particularly of quality Research and Development manpower in the Muslim world. Consequently, no real and substantial development has been possible in the past four decades. It also shows that the Muslim countries have a long way to go to catch up with even the average developing countries in the Third World. Rapid growth in science and technology is essential and even critical for the very survival of Muslim countries.
The status of the Muslim Ummah is of great concern to all the Muslim intellectuals. No one can deny that the Muslim Ummah occupies a position, which is at the lowest rung of the ladder in the scientific world. Even the rich Islamic countries are under-developed because the education and skill wise their citizens are no match to the developed world.
Catching up will not be easy but taking the first steps in the right direction may prove the best way to proceed. Let us commit ourselves to taking those steps now bearing in mind that without scientific and technological development no nation can compete in knowledge economy.
1. Introduction
Science and technology, in general, can be considered an important key towards solving the problems of socio-economic development and producing a high quality of life in which man has been transformed from a social burden to a productive contributor.
Today, the driving force behind the global economy is knowledge – and more specifically knowledge of science and technology. This means economically successful nations rely more and more on the quality of their human resources, rather than their natural resources to compete in an increasingly competitive world. We are moving from a production-based society into a knowledge-based society where human resources are becoming more important than raw materials (whose price is in constant down fall) and where capital is no longer sufficiently profitable unless it is accompanied by "added values" intellectual input and innovation, i.e., human resources development is the cornerstone of the entire development process.
Advanced technologies such as computer science, cybernetics, robotics, artificial intelligence, space technology and biotechnology are thriving in an industrial sector which devotes 8% to 12% of its turnover to Research and Development, and almost as much to staff training. The so-called "transfer of technology" is a hoax, which consists in palming off obsolete products on the Islamic countries at unjustifiably prohibitive prices. Control of technology requires internally expended efforts and endogenous research. This is not a commodity that can be purchased or sold. It is rather a long process, which is based on knowledge and creativity.
Economic development of any developing country rests mainly on its base of science & technology and its application to the major sectors of Agriculture, Transport, Industry, Education, Health and Environment. The genesis of this recognition is easily traced to the existence of a worldwide distinction between the developed and the developing nations, based largely on the state of their science and technology.
Islamic countries are entering a new phase of economic development with emphasis on the crucial role of the private sector and its potential impact on different branches of economy. Thus, they are urging their private sector to invest in technology in order to maintain their industrial or economic competitiveness relative to the industrialized countries. In addition, the formation of an Islamic Common Market would be a suitable strategy to boost inter-Islamic trade. However, It does not only need trade liberalization but it also need human resources that are able to handle technology transfer as well as scientific access to emerging markets.
2. Status of Science & Technology in IDB Member Countries
· Science and technology in the Islamic world…. From the golden age to the scientific desert
"The main, as well as the least obvious, achievement of the middle Ages was the creation of the experimental spirit, and this was primarily due to the Muslims down to the 12th century."
The science historian, George Sarton
A thousand years ago, the Muslim World made remarkable contributions to science. Muslims introduced new methods of experiment, observation, and measurement. To name but a few: Al-Khwarizmi (born in 825 A.D.) invented algebra (an Arabic word) and the word algorithm is derived from his name; Ibn al-Haytham (born in 1039 A.D.) wrote the laws of the reflection and refraction of light and expounded the principles of inertia (long before Isaac Newton formulated his theories); Ibn Sina (born in 980 A.D. in what is now modern-day Uzbekistan) wrote the Canon of Medicine (al-Qanun fi'l-Tibb), a 318-page medical text that was the basis for all medical teaching in Europe and the Middle East for hundreds of years.
The Muslim scientific and technological experience consists of a golden age in the tenth through thirteenth centuries, a subsequent collapse, a modest rebirth in the nineteenth century, and a history of frustration in the twentieth century. The deficiency in Muslim science and technology is particularly intriguing given that Muslims were world leaders in science and technology a millennium ago.
The teachings of the Holy Prophet of Islam emphasize "the acquiring of knowledge as bounden duties of each Muslim from the cradle to the grave" and that "the quest for knowledge and science is obligatory upon every Muslim man and woman." Moslem holy book exhort believers to study nature, to reflect, and to make the best use of reason in their search for the ultimate truth.
In other words, we have a historical record in science and technology achievements and we have a religion that encourages scientific researches. In fact, Islamic medicine and science produced by Moslem scientists led the world for centuries while Europe stagnated in the Dark Ages. However, today's Islamic world became like a scientific desert and Muslim countries, home to 23 % of the world's total population, and 75 % of the world's oil wealth, generate less than 5 % of its science.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is a group of 57 geographically scattered countries with predominantly Muslim populations. Stretching from Indonesia to Morocco and from Uganda to Kazakhstan, they are home to 1.3 billion people, but their economies are generally among the world's poorest, and illiteracy levels are among the highest. Six of the eight poorest countries on the planet are OIC members. Only two scientists from Islamic states have won Nobel Prizes, Abdus Salam, a Pakistani (Physics, 1979) and Ahmed Zewail, an Egyptian (Chemistry, 1999). Both carried out their research outside Islamic countries. Today's Muslim societies have generated few scientists of international repute.
“Today we are the poorest, the most illiterate, the most backward, the most unhealthy, the most un-enlightened, the most deprived, and the weakest of all the human race,”
P. Musharraf – Pakistain’s president- told the delegates to the meeting, on 16 February 2004, at the opening of a meeting of the standing committee on scientific and technological cooperation of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, which was attended by ministers from 40 Muslim countries.
Although Islamic countries have a valuable human population resources of over one billion and are bio-resource rich with considerable potentials for industrial development – which are either unexploited or simply not exploited efficiently -, the technological gap between Islamic states as a separate entity, and developed countries in general is unbelievably wide.
It is sad to admit to the fact that gross national product of the Islamic countries collectively was about US$1,200 billion, less than one quarter the figure for Japan with no natural resources, and only just higher than the GDP of Germany. Sadder even than these is the fact that Islamic countries have in their possession the most important, most strategic lever of economic control; namely, crude oil, which they offer to the world generously. The Islamic countries collectively provide about 75% of the world’s crude oil requirements and make possible the growth and development of world economy and industry. Like a mother feeding her baby, they are nurturing the world and guaranteeing its survival while most of these countries, themselves, remain hungry, poor and week. In addition, it provides the most strategic lever of industrial biotechnology, namely genetic resources, to developed nations.
3. Current Moslem scientific and technological resources
It is difficult to give a detailed picture of scientific and technological resources in the Islamic world, given the large number of Muslim nations with their varied geographical distributions and population.
(A) Scientific and technological institutions
· At present there are 57 independent Muslim States, members of the OIC, total number of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education and Research in the Muslim Ummah is above 1000.
· The total number of universities that serve 1.3 billion inhabitants in OIC member states is less than 600, most of low standard, while Japan has 1000 universities including 120 of them in Tokyo alone. The OIC region, as a whole needs at least 12000 universities.
The entire Muslim world universities produce 500 PhDs in sciences every year; in contrast, the United Kingdom alone produces 3,000. In addition, Of the world's top 500 universities 2003 survey, only two are in OIC member states (both in Turkey) but no single university was chosen in 2004 survey.
(B) Scientific and technological manpower
The mean rate for literacy for the Muslims is 35 % lower than that for the Third World, and 40 % below the world's average. The data suggests that almost two-thirds of the Muslims worldwide are illiterate. This low level of literacy, evidently, is responsible for the grinding poverty, the backwardness, and the deplorable conditions under which the vast majority of the Muslims live at present.
If we consider the present enrolment in scientific and technological education in the 18-23 year age group at the universities as an index of high scientific potential, the Islamic countries average 2% of the relevant age group compared to the norms of around 12% for the developed countries.
In addition, the rate of enrollment in higher education for Muslim is fully 45 percent lower than that for the Third World countries, a state of affairs that could be regarded stunning.
Furthermore, Islamic countries, as a whole, have approximately 275 researchers per million population against 850 per million in the developed West. But even among the Muslim countries, there are regional imbalances. The ratio works out to only 100 researchers per million African Muslims, 445 for one million Arab population while for Asians it is 569 researchers per million people.
The disparity between the Third World and Muslim nations in the number of scientists and engineers is quite striking. Despite similar levels of development, there are more than twice as many scientists and engineers in the Third World as in the Muslim countries, and almost eleven times as many in the Industrialized nations. Muslims account for 23 percent of the world's population, but less than one percent of its scientists.
Arab human resource (Represent 20% of the Moslem world)
· University graduates: Estimated statistics of university graduates in the labour force is roughly 12 to 15 millions in an adult population (~150 million). This means 8% to 10% hold a BA/BS degree or higher. About 30 to 40% of these are in applied & basic sciences. This is a significant proportion when compared with world's leader, US, whose equivalent proportion is 20%.
· Potential researchers: It is likely that "potential researchers" in the Arab World are about 60,000 in year 2000/1. An analytical study indicated that, on average, only 5% of university professors load in the Arab is utilized for research related activities while this percentage tops to 33% in advanced countries. Rough estimates indicate that there are substantial number of Arab scientists, both in the Arab World and abroad (in EU and US ~ 36,000 in 2000). In other words, the challenge facing the Arab countries today is not only to educate a few thousand more scientists, but also integrates them.
· The number of Arab scientists and engineers per capita is a third of the world average. Japan has a value of 9.14 researches per 1000 of the workforce and 8.08 for the USA