Responses to attacks on education therefore need to extend beyond situations of armed conflict, into countries in which education is repressed, polarized, or highly politicized.   Attacks on academic staff can often occur for publishing research as well as undertaking teaching and this is not always linked to situations where there is armed conflict.

The negative consequences of attacks on higher education affect not just universities, but also primary and secondary schools that depend on quality teachers trained at the tertiary level and on research that informs pedagogy and curriculum at all levels.  Attacks on higher education institutions and personnel also cause a ‘brain drain’ as threatened scholars flee or are killed, diminishing the quality of education overall.  The situation for scholars in Iraq is an extreme example: over 460 Iraqi scholars have been assassinated since 2003.   Many more have been kidnapped and their families targeted or threatened in great numbers, leaving them with no option but to flee.

Overall those assisting higher education personnel indicate that they are assisting those that have fled from many countries in almost every region of the world.  What may be surprising is that scholars and academics who face persecution work in many different disciplines - sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities - meaning that attacks on higher education are not always just about silencing the political opposition, but also about controlling ideas and knowledge in society.   For more country-specific details, see the country profiles in the Annex at the end of this study.  Examples of programmatic responses to attacks on higher education that follow here are categorized under physical protection, alternative delivery of education, advocacy, and research and development of higher education.

Physical protection of higher education

• Multiple coun​tries: As of November 2011, The Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) of the Institute of International Education (IIE) had awarded grants to 436 scholars from 46 different countries whose lives or careers were threatened.   The grants allow the scholars to temporarily relocate to one of 260 institutions in 40 countries where they can continue working in safety.   The Scholars at Risk Network (SAR), hosted by New York University, similarly supports the relocation for persecuted scholars through an international network of universities and colleges.    The Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) is currently providing direct help by way of fellowships, grants and advice to nearly 200 academics in the United Kingdom (UK), Zimbabwe, and the Middle East.   In the UK it has established it own scheme to provide employment advice and guidance to ensure their skills are not lost. 

Alternative delivery of education in higher education

• Zimbabwe: CARA and Econet, a telecommunications company, began the Virtual Lecture Programme in 2009 at the University of Zimbabwe.  The program purchased, installed, and maintains equipment so that experienced academics abroad can deliver lectures via video to fill a gap in the faculty of Zimbabwean universities, particularly in the areas of health science, veterinary science, and pharmacy.
• Iraq: The SRF Iraq Scholar Rescue Project (ISRP) also includes components that foster linkages between Iraqi scholars abroad and in country.  Iraq Bridging/Scholarship activities include the Iraq Scholar Lecture Series (ISLS), a distance learning program that screens recorded lectures from senior Iraqi scholars living abroad.  Nearly 100 specialized lectures by SRF Iraqi scholar-grantees have been filmed and provided to 16 universities in Iraq, and to date more than 3,500 students and faculty have benefited.  A number of universities are putting the lectures on their websites as open coursework.  The SRF Distance Learning strategic plan and funding will allow for the ISLP to expand its library to over 300 lectures in the next two years with an intended participation of more than 28,000 Iraqi students and faculty. In addition, the program implementation now includes a Live Lecture Series , which provides ‘real time’ course lectures by SRF scholar-grantees in the Diaspora to students and faculty colleagues at Iraqi universities.
• OPT and Iraq: An initiative for Open and Distance Learning (ODL) at Palestinian Universities helps students and academics avoid problems associated with school closures and travel risks.  ODL builds on the framework of the Avicenna Project.  The Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education, with support from UNESCO, launched the Avicenna Virtual Campus for universities in 2009.

Advocacy

• Multiple countries: The International Research and Advocacy Team, supported by Scholars at Risk and launched in March 2011, is a group of international researchers who plan to foster legal, political, and moral precedents for the protection of higher education worldwide.

Research and development of higher education

• Ir​aq: CARA provides funding to scholars both in-country and abroad through the Iraq Research Fellowship Programme to enhance research and teaching capacities, undertake and deliver innovative research outputs of relevance to Iraq’s future, nurture international research collaborations, and re-engage selected Iraq academics in exile.   The Research Exchange and Development Scheme (RED) provides an opportunity for young academics with Masters degrees to earn a PhD, spending the first two years of the program in the UK and the final year at their home institutions.   The scheme encourages the development and rebuilding of higher education in Iraq following the brain drain.
• Zimb​abwe: Zimbabweans living in the United Kingdom founded the Zimbabwe Diaspora Development Interface (ZDDI) to harness new ideas and skills, experiences, networks, and financial resources for the development of Zimbabwe.   In the higher education sector, ZDDI partnered with CARA to conduct a needs assessment in Zimbabwe and South Africa, where many Zimbabwean academics are employed in non-academic jobs.  They provide grants for research and are involved in the Virtual Lecture Programme.

Considerations for protecting higher education

The longest-running programs for protecting higher education have so far focused mainly on the physical protection of individuals.   Recently, with the implementation of distance learning programs, research support, and development initiatives there is increasing attention being focused on how academics can re-connect with and contribute to higher education in-country and eventually return to work at their home institutions.   Capacity rebuilding once a higher education system has been under attack is increasingly being seen as a most important programmatic responses to attacks on higher education.  Moving forward, there is still a need to look at how higher education protection measures might link to education at other levels and to begin to address some of the causes of attacks on higher education.