Aspects of the research performance of Muslim countries Mohamed El Amin A. El Tom Garden City College for S &T Khartoum - Sudan

Muslim countries: Introductory remarks Some 40 predominantly Muslim countries are home to about 20% of total world population ?: Are their collective shares of world GDP Expenditure on R&D Research output Proportionate to their population size?

Wide variations Population size: 232.5m (Indonesia) – 0.4m (Brunei) Economies: High income (Kuwait) – Low income (Mali) # tertairy students/ inhabts.: 6,734 (Libya) – 106 (Niger) Generalizations ---- care!

Research output: The record Table 1: G26 share of ISI world publcns (%), ‘95 ‘97 ‘99 ‘01 ‘03 ‘05 ‘07 ’

Research output: The record Table 1: No. publcns. In ISI databases and ave. annual growth rate CountryPublcs/yr/mAve. ann growth rate Albania 18.6 Albania Algeria Algeria

Azerbaijan 32.7 Azerbaijan Bahrain Bahrain Bangladesh Bangladesh Brunei Brunei Comoros 4.6 Comoros Djibouti 5.5 Djibouti Egypt Egypt Guinea Guinea

Indonesia Indonesia Iran Iran Jordan Jordan Kazakhstan 150 Kazakhstan Kuwait Kuwait Libya Libya Malaysia Malaysia Mali Mali

Mauritania Mauritania Morocco Morocco Niger Niger Oman Oman Pakistan Pakistan Qatar Qatar Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Sudan Sudan

Syria Syria Tunisia Tunisia Turkey Turkey UAE UAE Yemen Yemen G26 countries 25.1 G26 countries World 5.9 World

Huge deficit in research output

Research dominated by 7 countries Egypt Iran Malaysia Morocco Saudi Arabia Tunisia Turkey

Table 2: Research output: G26 vs G7 Country Egypt Iran Malaysia Morocco Saudi Arabia Tunisia Turkey

Total G Total G (% G26) (76.1) (82.0)

Dominance of universities Country Publcs., Non-univ (%) Egypt Iran Malaysia Morocco Saudi Arabia Tunisia Turkey

Structure of research, Total Appl. Sci Basic SS A&H Egypt Iran Malaysia Morocco S. Arabia Tunisia Turkey

Why this low level of achievement? Demographics: No. researchers is low (649/m OIC ave vs 2,532 world ave.; participation by women in sci and eng. Is low Language: > 80% of the world’s scientific lit. appear first in English. Therefore, scientific work requires a min. level of competence in English, which is lacking in most Muslim countries. Education: Too much rote learning;