Research & Research Grants Awarded

This competitive strand is restricted to Syria Programme participants, with approximately six- to nine-monthly calls for initial expressions of interest and outlines. The most recent, open to all disciplines, went out in April 2023, eliciting 22 expressions of interest. In keeping with the Cara partnering model, each eligible study team is partnered with two mentors to support the proposal development phase, establishing professional connections from the very outset.

More than 80 discrete pieces of research have been supported since the first Syria Programme SRFS grant call in 2018, in which over 100 Syrian colleagues have been involved, the majority focusing on the challenges facing Syria or Syrian communities in exile. All submissions are sent for initial review by independent experts in the topic area, with their feedback used to inform the final selection process.
Selection Criteria: i. Likely impact, including capacity-building impact; ii. Quality; Innovation/Originality; iii. Feasibility; iv. Team relevance/competence; v. Value for Money; and vi. Anticipated Dissemination Strategy.

Enhancing the Benefits of Feedback As part the SP’s capacity-building aims, feedback received from independent expert reviewers and the SP Grant Awards Committee is compiled and shared with team members regardless of whether they are awarded a grant. Team mentors are asked to review the feedback with their Syrian colleagues to ensure the points made are fully understood.

Cara-commissioned Research (CCR) facilitates research collaborations focusing on Syrian HE, and the emerging HE sector in the non-regime North West of Syria in particular. CCR topics are developed in consultation with, and implemented by, SP participants, supported by SP-recruited mentors from proposal development through to final publication.

• Phase 1 (2017-18), led by Professor Colleen McLaughlin, University of Cambridge Director of Education Innovation and leader of the Educational Reform and Innovation team and colleagues, collaborating with 19 SP participants, sought to capture the state of HE in Syria pre- and post-crisis. This research, co-funded by Cara and The British Council, delivered two reports published in 2019.
• Phase 2 (2019-20) led by Dr Juliet Millican, Institute of Development Studies Associate Researcher, working with five teams (29 Syrian colleagues) supported by SP-recruited mentors, focused on the role of the Syrian HE sector in addressing some of the societal challenges facing Syria: Cultural Heritage; Education; Energy; Society and Food/Livestock. Study outputs were published in 2020 in a special Syria Programme issue of Education and Conflict Review, Rebuilding Syrian Higher Education for a Stable Future.
• Phase 3 (2020-21) topics were identified over a two-day Cara Syria Programme Round Table (15-16 February 2020) held in Istanbul with the two rectors and vice-rectors of Al-Sham University and Free Aleppo University and a number of SP participants and UK faculty, to identify and prioritise the challenges facing the emerging HE sector in the non-regime North West of Syria. Five studies were taken forward: ‘Professional Standards Framework for HE teaching in Syrian Context’, ‘Record Systems to Facilitate Mobility and Transition’, ‘A&H Quality Control in Research and Teaching’, ‘Current Discipline-related Knowledge Gaps’, and ‘The Question of Gender in the Syrian Higher Education Context’, led again by Dr Juliet Millican and SP-recruited mentors, with final papers published in the International Journal of Educational Research Open (IJEDRO) in late 2021 and early 2022.
• Phase 4 (2022-ongoing) builds on the five Phase 3 studies, focusing in particular on the all-encompassing question of quality HE provision, central to which is a quality management and assurance model that places context at its heart – this last being all the more important given the fragile conflict-affected context in which Al Sham University operates. It takes the form of a series of action-research studies to evidence Al Sham compliance with internationally recognised quality standards such as the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in HE (ESG) in the absence of formal institutional accreditation. These studies also explore the role of the arts, humanities and social sciences in increasing discipline diversity, redressing the current gender imbalance amongst both staff and students, and enhancing the university’s engagement with, and response to, local community needs. Anticipated Outputs A number of publications are anticipated including one that captures a replicable model on which other HEIs in conflict or unstable environments will be able to draw.

Published Syria Programme Research

This UK/Syrian collaboration, co-funded by the University of Kent, aims to capture the evolution of the Syria Programme with two planned outputs: an academic ‘shorts’ publication and a Cara toolkit capturing activities and lessons from previous Cara country programmes on which to draw in the face of future comparable crises, including guidance for partner universities on how to engage with and support future country programmes.