An-Najah Staff

 Educational development in Palestine is a unique, rich, and challenging experience;
unique because it is one of the very few places in the world, if not the only one, where a Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE) is being built from scratch, rich because of the eagerness and motivation of the Palestinians to learn, challenging because Palestine is not yet an independent country and is witnessing conflict on a daily basis. As for higher education (HE), its development is of a relatively recent date. Two - year colleges have existed since the 1950‟s. These institutions which focused on teacher training, technical education, or liberal arts, were either government or UNRWA organized. I t is only since the 1970‟s that the universities came into being. Created during Israeli occupation, these institutions were part of a Palestinian collective effort to preserve the Palestinian identity as well as to provide young Palestinians with the opportunity to pursue HE, after it became increasingly difficult for them to go abroad for such studies. However, the sector has expanded only since the transfer of education from Israel to the Palestinian National Authority (P NA after the Oslo accords in 1990.