Saudi Arabia puts premium on education

Saudi Arabia engenders education among youth. No better proof of this can be found but with the King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP), which has been extended up to the year 2020.
“The scholarship program comes as one of the many plans to improve the outcome of the Saudi educational system,” Education Minister Khalid Al-Angari said.
Such outcomes include harnessing the knowledge and experience gained by the scholarship recipients when they come back to the Kingdom.
Rawan Radwan, who graduated last year from a master’s degree program in Hungary, said, “Things outside the Kingdom are not as easy as they are in the country. The experience Saudi students abroad acquire will, in many ways, contribute to the country’s development when they return.”
She said “We learned to realize our dreams and depend on ourselves and we will use that in serving our home country.”
The same sentiment was expressed by a Saudi who graduated from a university in Japan under the King Abdullah Scholarship Program.
He said, “I want to experience working for a Japanese company first, especially in the global market. In the future, I’d like to use the knowledge I gain in my country.”
One of the main aims of the scholarship program include the development of human resources to address major challenges facing the Kingdom, including the increasing population and the departure from being an oil-dependent economy.
Since its beginnings in 2005, the scholarship program has served over 130,000 students in 46 countries across the globe, over 20 percent of whom are women. More than 60,000 scholars are studying in the United States. So far, 47,000 students have graduated from Western universities.
Thirty percent of scholarship students are in the US, 15 percent in the United Kingdom, 11 percent in Canada, 8 percent in Australia, and the rest are in other countries.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah said during the launching of the program in 2005 that it was conceived of “For them to know the world and for the world to know them.”
Saudi students now study in 46 countries which include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Italy, Australia, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, New Zealand, Austria, Czech Republic, Singapore, Japan, People’s Republic of China, Malaysia, India and South Africa.
Almost half of scholarship recipients are undergraduates, with 25 percent in graduate programs and 25 percent in fellowship, ESL, or foundation programs.
One of these scholars is Hani Aljuaid, who completed a bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics. He’s one of nearly 68,000 Saudis studying at more than 1,200 unversities and colleges across the United States as a participant in the KASP.
Aljuaid relocated recently to Washington, D.C. to continue his studies at the George Washington University, where he will begin a master’s degree in finance.
Yet the expectations of the students go beyond just academics and acquiring book knowledge, said Dr. Mody Alkhalaf, director of cultural and social affairs at the Cultural Mission of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia based in Northen Virginia.
They also engage in what Al Angari describes as “good ambassadors.”
Japan is also a favorite destination among scholarship recipients. Their number has increased yearly since the first 170 students went to Japan to study under the scholarship program. This year, there are 511 students currently enrolled in various courses.
Last March, the Saudi Embassy’s Cultural Office held a job fair in conjunction with the graduation ceremony for Saudi students.
Said Essam Bukhary, a cultural attache, said that about 190 students, including new graduates, exchanged information face-to-face with representatives from 30 companies, including Toyota Motor Corp., Hitachi Ltd., and Idemitsu Kora Comp.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, 3,500 students, both doctorate and master’s degree holders, have graduated this year. Saudi Ambassador Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz patronized the graduation ceremony.
Speaking at the ceremony, Prince Mohammed congratulated students, advising them to preserve the unification of the country which was achieved by their predecessors.
There are Saudi 202 students currently studying at the University of Manchester. They are enrolled in petroleum engineering, medicine, engineering (mechanical, aerospace, civil and electrical), electrical engineering with a foundation year and mathematics.
Malaysia is another favorite destination for Saudi students under the scholarship program. Ambassador Datuk Syed Omar Al-Saggaf told Arab News in an earlier interview, “Saudi students like to enroll at Malaysian universities because the quality of education is high.”
Abdulaziz Al Ghamdi, an electronics engineering student at Malaysia’s Multimedia University, said the scholarship program would contribute to development in the Kingdom in various ways, including economic growth. There are more than 2,000 Saudi students currently studying in the country.