Al-Fanar Media: Online publication devoted to covering Arab higher education

London, 24 March 2013 - Al-Fanar Media, founded by the Alexandria Trust, seeks to provide balanced, accurate, and insightful coverage of all aspects of academic life in the Arab world and to serve as a watchdog for academic freedom on its new website www.al-fanarmedia.org. The website for Al Fanar, meaning “Lighthouse” in Arabic, is bilingual in English and Arabic and plans to introduce a print edition as well.

Al Fanar will convene roundtables and discussion forums about critical issues in higher education and, in a subsequent phase, will develop training opportunities for journalists in the region who want to specialize in writing about education. The publication recently received a two-year grant from the Ford Foundation.

New features include a potential renaissance for Arabic translation, 10 years of polls shed light on Arab views, and an op-ed by an American dean serving at an Emirati University and the cultural lessons she learned.

David L. Wheeler, former managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education, leads the planning and ongoing management of Al Fanar. Journalists, writing about news and trends at Arab universities provide the publication’s editorial core, which will be supplemented by carefully selected commentary from academics in the region. Al Fanar’s Senior Editor is Rasha Faek, a Syrian journalist based in Amman, Jordan.