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 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 percent of senior administrators appointed before 2021, when Taliban retook control of the country following the exit of US and UK troops. Only 8 percent of the administrators now in post hold a Ph D and only three presidents were also faculty members. Instead, the findings show that four-fifths of administrators — and 87 percent of presidents — come from the Pashtun ethnic group that the Taliban movement is deeply rooted in. Of all appointees, 44 percent were trained in Islamic seminaries, rising to 77.5 percent of all presidents.

Their paper, published in the journal Studies in Higher Education, 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”.

The consequences for women, says Orfan, 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 warns 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.”