“Males only”: who is shut out of Syria’s 2026 university admissions

Supported by independent sources

• National University for Defence Sciences: the land (Homs), naval and air (Aleppo) military colleges — mechanical, electronic, informatics, mechatronics, marine and aeronautical engineering — are “males only”. ¹
• The same university’s Faculty of Humanities and Administrative Sciences in Damascus — management and economics, legal sciences and social sciences — is “males only”. ¹
• Applicants to the military colleges and to that faculty must be “an unmarried male” aged 23 or under and at least 165 cm tall, and must pledge not to join any party or political organisation. ¹
• Syrian University for Security Sciences: the Faculty of Security Sciences and the Technical Institute of Security Sciences are “males only”. ¹
• Technical institutes: railways (Aleppo) and oil and gas (Rmelan, Homs, Banias, Deir ez-Zor) are “males only”; at the Technical Institute for Media in Idlib, the listed specialisations end with radio and television directing followed by “(males only)”. ¹
• The nursing schools of Damascus and Aleppo universities admit women only, and offer boarding to unmarried female students only. ¹

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• The Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology, part of the defence university, is listed as “males and females” for all its programmes, including aeronautical engineering at its Aleppo branch. ¹ Some media reports listed that programme as men-only; ^{2 3} the official text does not.
• The Faculty of Cybersecurity and the Technical Institute of Cybersecurity at the security university are open to “males and females”. ¹
• Snack Syrian notes that the Interior Ministry opened a women’s police institute, whose first class graduated in September 2026. ⁴

Supported by independent sources

Compared with the ministry’s announcement for the 2025–2026 scientific stream:

• Oil and gas institutes: last year men could apply to all specialisations and women to precision instruments and to accounting and warehouses in Homs, and to precision instruments in Banias and Deir ez-Zor. This year the institutes are listed as “males only”. ^{5 1}
• The defence and security universities, including the law, social science and management programmes, appear for the first time; they were created by Decrees No. 146 and 147 of July 2026. ^{6 1}
• Unchanged: the railway institute was already “males only” and the nursing schools “females only” last year. ⁵

Al Arab writes that media studies in Idlib were already restricted to men before, and attributes this to a lack of facilities for separating male and female students. ³

Supported by independent sources

The two universities were created by Presidential Decrees No. 146 and 147 of 5 July 2026, issued by Ahmed al-Sharaa. Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra called the defence university the culmination of months of work; al-Halabi called the two decrees “a strategic step” and said his ministry was ready to cooperate in activating them. ^{6 7}

The admission announcement was issued and signed by al-Halabi, who presented its rules on 30 September 2026. The text does not say which institution set each condition, or why. ^{1 8}