Saudi Arabia exchange students help Kingdom's society flourish

By Hussein Al-Saleh in Riyadh
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-01-28

[Hussein Al-Saleh] Saudi students at an American university.

In the nineteenth century, the empires of Japan and Russia sent many of their citizens to study in European countries. The Saudi Arabian academic Abdel Rahman Al-Ghamidi compares the current trend of sending Saudi citizens abroad to study to this previous era.

"The earliest of these students returned to Russia and Japan and created a revolution in many ways," Al-Ghamidi said in an interview with Al-Shorfa. "They formed the basis of development in their countries. The same is happening in Saudi Arabia."

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz started a scholarship programme five years ago and extended it recently for another five years. The campaign propelled his country to fourth place in terms of the number of students studying abroad, according to a recent report published by UNESCO on the movement of students around the world in 2009.

Saudi Arabia ranked behind China, India and South Korea but ahead of Japan and the United States by more than 70,000 students. Saudi Arabia also occupies the top spot for the number of students studying abroad as a proportion of the population, a total of 0.03 %.

Scholarships are granted to either male or female students. There are no restrictions on women studying abroad, but they must be accompanied by an immediate family member during their time abroad. This requirement is a benefit because many companions enrol as students at the expense of the Saudi government and join the universities at which their wives or sisters are studying.

When oil prices reached $150 a barrel, King Abdullah invested some of the proceeds to establish the scholarship programme which targets more than 25 countries, foremost among them the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia. The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Higher Education, however, has stopped sending students to Britain and Australia because of the large numbers of Saudi Arabian students at their universities.

Even though the price of oil has fallen, Saudi Arabia is continuing this programme. The Ministry of Higher Education plans to establish endowment funds, the proceeds of which will be allocated to expenditures needed for sending students abroad, in addition to granting them interest free loans.

The Ministry's representative for Scholarship Affairs, Dr. Abdullah Al-Mousa, told Al-Shorfa that the scholarship programme "has witnessed an unprecedented expansion in quantity and quality regarding the number of scholarship students, the range of countries and educational institutions to which they are sent, the diversity of specialisation, and the needs of the employment market and the development plans to which they correspond".

"There has been an increase in the number of Saudi Arabian cultural attachés abroad to assist the students," he said. "They have increased from 24 four years ago to 33 today." He mentioned the "seriousness and dedication of Saudi Arabian students", explaining that "the rate of student failure is less than 3% of scholarship students".

"Despite the fact that there are around 100,000 students plus their companions, including husbands, wives and children, there have been only 118 cases [covering minor and major legal infractions] officially recorded against them," Al-Mousa added. "The Saudi Arabian embassies have coordinated with the governmental authorities in those countries."

Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian Cultural Attaché in the United States, Dr. Muhammad Al-Isa, told Al-Shorfa that Saudi Arabians have a significant presence in America as their numbers have increased significantly. Three hundred scholarship students graduated in 2008, most of whom were Master's students. More than 1,000 graduated last year," he said. He expects that more than 3,000 will graduate this year.

Al-Ghamidi draws attention to another aspect of the scholarship movement.

"Scholarship students, in particular those going to university in developed countries, will return not only with degrees, but with other experience gained through their contact with those societies, such as the experience of student association elections in which these students participate (which their Saudi Arabian counterparts do not experience), voluntary work, and political, cultural and social freedoms", he said. "They will form the kernel of change in society's movement towards development."

Bookmarking

Please comment on this article so that we can improve the experience of viewing this website.