In Syrian Universities... Law and Media for Males Only? University Specializations Spark New Controversy

The 2026-2027 academic year university admission competition in Syria has sparked widespread controversy after applications revealed that admission to a number of colleges, institutes, and specializations was restricted to male students to the exclusion of females. These include civilian fields such as legal sciences, social sciences, and radio and television directing, while the Ministry of Higher Education did not provide a detailed explanation for the reasons behind excluding female students from these tracks.

The debate began after the Syrian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced on September 30 last year the issuance of admission competitions within a unified electronic system, publishing the admission conditions for each college, institute, and specialization.

Why males?
According to the published lists, legal sciences and social sciences were allocated to males at the College of Humanities and Administrative Sciences, along with the Technical Institute for Railways and the Technical Institute for Oil and Gas, in addition to the specialization of radio and television directing at the Technical Institute for Media. The list also included the College of Security Sciences and the Technical Institute for Security Sciences, alongside military, engineering, maritime, and aviation specializations, including mechanical, electronic, informatics, mechatronics, marine engineering, and aerospace engineering.

The restriction of some university specializations to males in Syria was not limited to security and military fields or programs associated with specific working conditions; it extended to listing civilian disciplines, particularly law, social sciences, and media. This expanded the circle of questions regarding the criteria upon which the ministry relied in allocating these tracks to male students.



According to reports and the ministry's official website, the ministry did not provide a general detailed explanation for the reasons behind restricting each specialization individually, while admission lists show the existence of other specializations open to both male and female students, meaning that this does not appear to constitute a general decision to segregate genders in Syrian universities.



From admission competition to the debate on mixed education
This controversy comes weeks after a similar discussion raised by the decision of "Al-Hurriya Institute," formerly known as "The Lyceum" in Damascus, to separate male and female students in the preparatory and secondary stages, while maintaining mixing in the primary stage. The institute's administration stated at the time that the decision was taken for educational and behavioral considerations and was not the result of a general government directive.

With this new admission competition, the discussion shifted from segregation within an educational institution to access opportunities to specific university specializations, especially since some may shape a professional future in the fields of law, media, and social sciences for girls. In the absence of a detailed official explanation, the question raised by the lists remains open: What are the criteria that make some of these specializations available to males but not females?