Part 1: Saudi Arabia looks eastwards for higher education

With rising population rates, more than fifty percent of inhabitants categorised as 'young', rising labour market expectations and a booming economy, the Saudi government has recently increased funding for overseas study and announced that foreign providers will receive authorisation to set up campuses in the kingdom.

A significant proportion of Saudi students currently study abroad, with the US, UK and Canada accounting for about half of overseas enrolments, but recent developments could signal a growing diversification of study abroad destinations.

Saudi Arabia seems to be pursuing a policy of multiple collaborations with a range of countries, and targeted study abroad destinations seem to be part of a wider political relations building strategy. What is the country's leadership proposing and what are the current trends in study abroad? Does this announcement herald a dramatic shift in Saudi policy away from the traditional study destinations?

Saudi students have been studying abroad with state encouragement for over a decade. The Saudi Ministry of Higher Education has actively built relationships with overseas universities, particularly those in the US, in recent years and provides scholarships to about half of Saudi overseas students to cover the costs of their foreign degree programmes.

25,000 applicants

As many as 25,000 Saudi students are being invited over a five year period to apply for the scholarship programme. Saudi officials have already indicated that the programme is being established in part to develop and improve international relations with targeted countries, as well as to increase the pool of highly educated Saudis available for employment and address identified key labour market gaps.

Apart from China and Japan which have recently accounted for a small but growing minority of Saudi overseas enrolments, Asian countries have not historically been major destinations for Saudi students. The MoHE recorded 17,500 Saudi nationals studying abroad in 2005/06.

While destinations are varied and include Europe, Japan, China, Russia, Canada, Australia, and other Arab nations including the United Arab Emirates, a large proportion (approximately 43%) of overseas students are shared between the US, the UK and Canada. Over 4,500 Saudi students are currently based in the United States, with just over 2,000 in the UK and 1,000 in Canada.

However, the new 'Eastward' approach appears to form part of a wider relationship building exercise between the Saudi King and Asian nations. Earlier this year, the King visited China and India for the first time since 1990 and 1995 respectively. Given Saudi Arabia's economic dependence on oil production, the primary reason for the visit may have been to discuss a trade relationship based on the growing demand for energy in Asia.

September 11th

It has also been suggested that the Saudi government is looking Eastwards for higher education collaboration due to stringent controls recently issued by the US. Since September 11th, it has been reported that the climate for Middle Eastern students in the US has become more difficult with visas becoming harder to obtain. The number of Saudi nationals studying in the US fell by 15.7% in 2004 from the previous year, and while enrolments in 2005 have risen again, over the last five years numbers have generally been unstable.

However, the US remains a top study abroad destination for Saudi students. In April 2005, President Bush hosted a visit by King Abdullah to discuss ways to increase the number of Saudis studying in the US, and the Saudi MoHE has since awarded 5000 scholarships for Saudi's to enrol in US institutions. The demand for visas has also increased over the last year with the US Embassy processing almost 7,000 Saudi student visas in 2005, compared to only 647 visas issued in 2004.

But, due to growing security concerns, since 13 November 2005 the US has imposed further restrictions on visas for all Saudis seeking to study in the country. The Riyadh Embassy website suggests that further delays may be experienced, and advises that some students might wish to request delayed admission to US universities and colleges.

Cost factors

Cost might be another factor influencing the Saudi MoHE when strategically selecting study abroad destinations for domestic students. The cost of obtaining a higher education in traditional study destinations such as the US and the UK is high compared to that charged by higher education institutions in Asian countries such as India and Malaysia.

In the UK, the British Council estimates that international students pay an approximate cost of $12,200 for undergraduate fees, and the US projects similar costs of US$12,600 for undergraduate tuition.

In Asia, the cost of a university education for overseas students is substantially lower, with tuition fees in some areas only half that charged by Western institutions and the cost of living even less. With countries such as India, China and South Korea increasingly developing domestic higher education capacity, lower cost does not necessarily reflect a poorer quality of provision.

* For this exclusive article AME info thanks the UK Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, a subscription-based strategic information service, initially established by the Association of Commonwealth Universities and Universities UK, which tracks and reports on developments within borderless higher education.