Academic management of Afghanistan’s universities has been systematically dismantled by the Taliban, according to a new study, with almost no leaders appointed prior to 2021 still in post.

A recently published analysis of the senior administrators who run the country’s universities shows men with religious or militant backgrounds have taken over all the key positions, leading to radical changes within institutions.

Researchers Sayeed N. Orfan and Eric Lavigne, of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Higher Education at the University of Toronto, collected data on 160 administrators across 40 universities and studied the detailed biographies of 30 of the people in charge.

They found the Taliban had dismissed 97.5 per cent of senior administrators appointed before 2021, when the Taliban retook control of the country following the exit of US and UK troops.

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Only 8 per cent of the administrators now in post hold a PhD and only three presidents were also faculty members.

Instead, the findings show that four-fifths of the administrators – and 87 per cent of presidents – come from the Pashtun ethnic group that the Taliban movement is deeply rooted in.

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Of all appointees, 44 per cent were trained in Islamic seminaries, rising to 77.5 per cent of all presidents.

Their paper, published in the journal , says there has been “a clear shift away from merit-based academic administration and toward appointments based on madrasa education, ethnic ties and ideological allegiance”.

It argues that “under Taliban rule, universities have shifted from spaces of critical inquiry and intellectual engagement to tools of ideological reproduction”.

Speaking to ̽����Ƶ, Orfan, who completed his bachelor’s degree at a public university in Afghanistan, said institutions had “come under the control of a group that neither respects their purpose nor values their contribution to society”.

“The appointment of administrators with primarily religious or militant backgrounds has transformed universities into highly authoritarian institutions operating under strict Taliban directives,” he said.

“These administrators act as direct representatives of Taliban leadership, ensuring that all decisions, policies and daily operations align with the group’s ideology, values and behavioural expectations.”

The biographies analysed revealed extensive militant backgrounds among administrators who describe serving as bomb planters, commanders or propagandists within Taliban ranks.

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One vice-president of finance and administration was “in charge of [the] Taliban’s explosive operations” in Nangarhar.

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Orfan said a “Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” now exists within many public and private universities, with staff “measuring beards and enforcing mandated clothing” and conducting seminars on approved religious topics.

“Academic freedom has become extremely limited,” Orfan warned. Administrators “removed books from university libraries that were considered inconsistent with their worldviews”.

“Books authored by women and used as textbooks were banned irrespective of their content,” he added.

“Faculty now teach under fear and students attend classes cautiously, knowing that expressing views contrary to Taliban values can result in arrest or imprisonment.”

He noted that research is “similarly constrained”. “Scholars cannot explore topics that might appear to challenge or contradict Taliban ideology,” he said.

A new Taliban-era academic journal devoted an entire issue to higher education’s role in development, “however, none of the 17 published articles addressed the regime’s ban on girls’ and women’s education”.

The consequences for women, he said, are “especially severe” – after the ban on women’s participation in late 2022, administrators “enforced the policy without exception, effectively erasing women from university life”.

He warned that international collaboration is also now compromised: “Because these institutions are now tightly controlled by the Taliban, international partners cannot rely on them to make independent decisions or uphold scholarly commitments…Any collaboration with institutions under Taliban control would require censorship and compromises that undermine academic integrity.”

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tash.mosheim@timeshighereducation.com