SAKAKA, 30 November 2006 — Minister of Higher Education Khaled Al-Anqari said at the Sixth National Dialogue Forum yesterday that his ministry had set up a strategic plan to develop higher education and upgrade the standards of education.
Anqari added that the government has approved SR8 billion for higher education projects this year.
Anqari said: “We understand that a large number of people have suffered, but people have to realize that it is due to a large number of reasons. One of the reasons was that a large number of degrees are fake.”
Recalling a past incident he said: “We found a female doctor working at a local hospital with a phony medical certificate.”
Anqari continued: “We found out that a number of universities were charging Saudi students much more fees than other foreign students studying in the same university. We decided to take a stand of disapproval toward such universities.”
The minister said that 70 percent of Saudis studying abroad (under government scholarships) are doing postgraduate studies. A number of participants questioned why foreign universities have not opened here. He replied that there is nothing in the regulations that would prevent that, as long as it follows the Kingdom’s education policy. The minister said that one foreign university requested to operate in Saudi Arabia, but its application was rejected because it insisted on a co-educational environment.
Hamza Al-Mizani, a former faculty member of King Saud University, said: “The ideologies that control summer programs and activities have affected and delayed openness in our universities.” He was referring to the annual summer educational programs offered to Saudi students.
Participants asked for the reasons of this shameful back-up considering the billions of dollars spent on higher education.
Khaled Al-Sultan, president of King Fahd University, said that the most important thing is academic recognition. He said that there are a number of classifications worldwide, “one of the more prominent is the ISI ranking, which places King Fahd University among the top 100 universities.” Al-Sultan added that the number of universities worldwide exceeds 40,000 and not 3,000. Eid Al-Shamari, retired English university teacher, said that the private sector needs more technical, engineering and medical colleges. There are 128 colleges under the ministry that teach theoretical topics.
Abdul Rahman Al-Habib, a human rights activist, called for elections inside universities. Anqari, said that it was done in the past and that it had its pros and cons. The ministry is studying the best method to relaunch it.
Abdul Rahman Al-Ansari, a former Shoura member, said: “We need to make use of foreign expertise inside universities.”
