No consolation for ‘grads’ of Harvard

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HARVARD University is one of the most prestigious and best universities in the world. It is a model of prestige, quality of education and seriousness. This institution is located in Cambridge, in the American State of Massachusetts.

Gratefully, the Kuwaiti government has been sending young Kuwaiti students to universities in Egypt, Lebanon, England, France and the USA before and after the establishment of Kuwait University. It continues to send excellent Kuwaiti students to overseas universities and those who cannot be accommodated at Shadadiya University and other private education institutions.

Recently, the proclamation of Kuwait’s Harvard graduates was published in newspapers, consisting of 201 members in Kuwait – both locals and expatriates. Former Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Muhammad Sabah Al-Salem, a Harvard alumnus who also served as Kuwaiti ambassador in Washington after the liberation of Kuwait in 1992, organized the event.

I do not know why fake degree holders crossed my mind upon reading news about the ceremony for the graduates of this prestigious American university. News on fake graduates surfaces from time to time. These fake graduates receive equal recognition in the eyes of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in terms of privileges and job titles with those who graduated from serious universities. What a sad paradox!

How can we equate people who studied day in day out, researching and acquiring serious education in universities such as Harvard and its kind, with those who do not know how the lecture halls of the institutions they claim to have graduated from look like?

The latest news which vexed us regarding this issue is about the statement made by an Egyptian parliamentarian during a session, stating that about 500 Kuwaiti students in an Egyptian university never stepped inside the institution.

In addition, they graduated with vital fields of specialization as a result of financial exchange with the broker and university official who allowed their process from A to Z in that university to be completely fake.

Worst of all, despite the increasing information about thousands of ‘dummy’ graduates as per the expression coined by our Egyptian brothers; our government officials have yet to issue any decision to curb such malpractices and impose the law on the culprits.

We fear that time will come when we will witness ceremonies or club of graduates from ‘dummy’ universities proudly standing in front of cameras as a challenge to the graduates of institutions such as Harvard. If this happens, we will tell prestigious universities and ourselves: “No consolation in a country of fake certificates.”

By Ali Ahmed Al-Baghli

Former Minister of Oil

This news has been read 26746 times!