By Burton Bollag. Many intensive English-language programs in the United States report that they have begun to see substantial decreases in enrollments from Saudi Arabia. This is being viewed as a harbinger of the long-term educational effects of severely depressed oil prices. The kingdom appears to be cutting back on its scholarship program that has allowed tens of thousands of young Saudis to earn degrees at Western universities over the last decade. More...

By Ahmed ElShamy. Cairo University has expanded the ban it previously imposed on wearing veils, known in Arabic as the “niqab,” inside its campuses. The ban will now also include nurses, staff members of the faculty of medicine, and female staff in the university’s teaching hospitals. More...

By Benjamin Plackett. Qatar has very few old buildings or traditional architecture left. That’s one of the main reasons the Souk Waqif complex near downtown Doha came to be. It is nestled on the opposite ridge of the corniche from the skyscrapers that dominate the Westbay neighborhood. It is a deliberate contradiction to the modern glass-fronted buildings across the water. More...

By Khaoula Sliti. Tunisia has an international reputation for having made a successful if wobbly transition to democracy, but many of the country’s academics say they are still subject to daily threats. More...

By Benjamin Plackett. A strong preference for visual content, coupled with better broadband connections, is fast making Instagram a bigger player in Arab social media, although Facebook continues to dominate the arena. More...