In light of the national transformations taking place in Syria, and in line with efforts to rebuild the state on knowledge and institutional foundations, the Syrian Future Movement followed with interest the convening of the “Ambassador 2025” summit in Damascus on September 15, 2025. The summit aimed to formulate a national roadmap for higher education reform, with broad participation from academics, researchers, and decision-makers.
The Syrian Future Movement views this summit as a positive step toward restoring the status of the Syrian university as an independent national institution capable of leading political and social transformation. We also reaffirm our position, as stated in a previous statement published on our official website on August 20, 2025, entitled “New Regulatory Decisions Issued by the Council for Higher Education and Scientific Research.”
The Syrian Future Movement believes that higher education reform is not a sectoral matter, but rather a fundamental pillar in the political transition process and the rebuilding of national legitimacy on knowledge and institutional foundations. The movement supports the move toward the independence of universities and their liberation from security and administrative control, ensuring freedom of research and thought.
The movement emphasizes the importance of linking higher education to the needs of society and the national economy by updating curricula, developing centers of research excellence, and strengthening the relationship between universities and the labor market. The movement also calls for the inclusion of marginalized areas in the educational process and ensuring access to higher education for all Syrians without discrimination. This was emphasized in our article entitled “Human Development in the Fields of Education, Teaching, and Scientific Research,” published on our official website on June 4, 2024.
The Syrian Future Movement welcomes the comprehensive digitization initiative for Syrian universities and emphasizes the need for this process to be part of transparent educational governance that ensures academic integrity and prevents discrimination or exclusion.
Based on our position, we, the Syrian Future Movement, recommend the following:
- Establishing an independent national body for higher education reform, including representatives from universities, students, and civil society.
- Launching a national academic charter that defines the basic principles of academic freedom and guarantees the independence of educational institutions.
- Supporting international partnerships with global universities and research centers to enhance the quality of education and break academic isolation.
- Integrating higher education into the political roadmap for the Syrian transition, as a tool for producing new elites and dismantling old authoritarian structures.
The Syrian Future Movement views the “Safir 2025” summit as a historic opportunity to rebuild higher education on national, cognitive, and institutional foundations. It affirms its full readiness to contribute to formulating future educational policies that serve the democratic transition project and place Syria on the path to sustainable development and social justice.
