Higher Education in Saudi Aberia

A sufficient education is something that Westerner’s like myself, have taken for granted for a long time. It’s easy to, in all honesty, because we have been raised in a society in which education has been held at the utmost importance. In the United States women are held at an equal level with men, we’ve fought for this sense of equality for several years and unfortunately, not all women across the world have had that same success. Women from other countries do not have half of the rights that we do here in the United States, and this is something that we seem to never really think about. Saudi Arabia is just one of the many countries around the world in which the women do not have as many rights as men do. Being a feminist at heart with a hunger for education, it piqued my interest to research the rights of women and education in Saudi Arabia. If I’m being honest, I had expected it to be much worse than it is, yet it could be so much better at the same time. Saudi women should have every right to educate themselves in any aspect they want, and though they have fought their way to gaining some leverage, there are still necessary steps that need to be taken.

Education remains to be the priority of all nations around the globe. Most countries devote vast resources to guarantee equal education opportunities to all their students. Most education systems are developed to meet the economic and social demands of the country, both locally and globally. As the world’s 8th highest education spender, Saudi Arabia initiates an overhaul on the education system. It is the largest country in the Middle East. The Saudi Arabian education has gone through an astounding transformation. Initially, education was only available to few people who were children of the wealthy families. However, the transformation of the Saudi Education is now offering education to all children regardless of their social status.

Without higher education it would be nearly impossible for professionals to perform their best. We need higher education in order to succeed and be the best that we can be. With higher education we can help our generation develop the necessary skills to survive. “We believe that higher ed-ucation contributes to the betterment of society by preparing individuals or a responsible civic life that has a commitment to social change at its core (Chunoo, Vivechkanand, and Laura Osteen)”. By helping our future and current generation aim for a higher education we are helping them thrive as a society. Not only are we helping them thrive but we are helping them become stronger and more cohesive as a whole.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the second largest Arab state behind Algeria and comprises the majority of the Arabian Peninsula and lies at the cross-roads of three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe. Its capital city is Riyadh, which is the largest city in the kingdom, and the home to about 7 million people. It occupies approximately 2,250,000 square kilometers (868,730 square miles). Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait are in its north border; on the east by the Gulf, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates; the Sultanate of Oman and Yemen are on its southeast; and the Red Sea is on its west. Located between Africa and mainland Asia, with long frontiers on the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf and with the Suez Canal near to its north-west border, the Kingdom lies in a strategically important position. It is the largest country in the region and the birthplace of Islam and Guardian of its most sacred shrine (The Ministry of Culture & Information 2006). It is considered the birthplace of the religion Islam, which is the largest religions in the world and refers as The Land of Two Holy Mosques. Due to the two holy mosques in Islam, the Masjid-e-Nabwi in Medina and the Masjid-al-Haram in Mecca. A large number of pilgrims visit the two holy mosques every year, who are Muslims, to perform Islamic practices of Haj and Umrah, which are

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”-Maimonides. This quote exposes the question; what is the difference between developed and developing countries? Education and money. How do you obtain money? Education. Education is a simple nine letter word; a noun that candidly represents a massive factor in all of our futures. With education being such large component to the quality of our lives and a relative indicator of earning a higher income, all of us have an obligation to maintain secure futures for the generations to come. Higher education is a vital process within one’s life that instructs how to solve real-life problems, teaches how to collaborate with other people, and also it feeds a keen curiosity that we all share. What would happen if the privilege of earning a higher education was unattainable? To stop the rising cost of higher education, government intervention within colleges and universities needs to be minimized.

Education is basically the process involves by facilitating learning, or the achievement of skills, knowledge, habits, beliefs and values. Education is considered as the golden ticket to a better life. However, this golden ticket is not acquired by many young individuals, during the perfect age to pursue higher education. At the preset era, students lack proper interest in the benefits of the institutions that are surrounding them. Education has becoming less available to the general public; the main reason behind this is the increased cost of higher education. This happens due to the enormous reductions to funding colleges and universities.

The mode of financing higher education in the public sector is central to higher education policy making because it reflects how education is provided to society and at what price. It also indicates the policy stance of the government towards higher education. (Chattopadhay 2007).Once the government has initiated economic reform policies and had frozen budgets for higher education, financial reforms were unveiled. In the post economic reforms period, since 1991 till today, different commission and committees have been constituted by the government or its agencies on higher education.

Among the countries in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia contains some of the largest markets with over 27 million consumers and several global enterprises. Saudi society is often described as young, dynamic and affluent which often cause rapid growth in several sectors. It has the world 's 19th largest economy and the region 's highest influx of FDI. Public-private partnerships are not uncommon in the Kingdom which allows many avenues for venture capital funding. Furthermore, public expenditures on education is around 5.8 percent of the country 's GDP which is the highest among the Middle Eastern countries. Although the societies in Saudi Arabia have very different cultural and market norms than Western countries like Canada, the increasingly competitive and deregulated economic environment has proven to be very beneficial for many companies in the private sector.

In Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Higher Education in 2015 became a part of the ministry of education once again. After King Salman became a king, he issued a royal order in 2015 to merge the Ministries of Higher Education and The Ministry of Education (New Saudi King, 2015). It is now only called The Ministry of Education (MOH). By 1938, oil was discovered in huge amounts in Saudi Arabia and by 1950 there were 365 schools educating 42,000 students in the kingdom (Simmons & Simmons, 1994). In 1954, the Ministry of Education was established. The Ministry of Higher Education in 1975 was a segment of the Ministry of Education, and it became a separate entity. Today, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of education has a huge budget. Saudi Arabia dedicated $57.9 billion (SR217 billion) to education and training, a 3 percent increase from the 2014 allocation (Saudi Arabia 's Budget, 2015). Saudi higher education is one of the most important characteristics of this country. The four significant characteristics of Higher Education in Saudi Arabia are focused on the teaching of Islam, centralized system of control and educational support, state funding of education at all levels, and gender segregation (Smith & Abouammoh, 2013). Higher education in Saudi Arabia has grown tremendously throughout the past decade. The higher education system, which is based on diversification has expanded to include 21 Government Universities, 18

Education is the establishment of accomplishment, on the off chance that you have objectives and exclusive standards; you can fulfill them through education. Higher education is a system where a four year degree can give you a wide enduring future. Being that the higher education is the most specific way to achieve a goal in the future in terms of jobs and higher earnings. More on the higher education are now financially aided by the government and that helps students a considerable during their four years of college. “Higher education is all about the more you learn the more you earn.” Its contention is compressed: “The evidence is clear that some form of postsecondary education is a necessary element of successful, independent lives

It is found that throughout the Middle East, the higher public educational sector is struggling to provide quality education to the scholars just because of the lack of facilities and advanced teaching skills. The higher public education of Saudi Arabia identify the requirement to offer quality services if they want to produce competent professionals for their better future. According to Onsman (2011), quality is considered as an important factor for most of the organizations as it is measured to be the core business and competitive practice. Moreover, the quality administration has turned out to be a planned strategy to attain greater performance and effectiveness in their related industry. It is important for the success of an educational institution that their higher officials must provide all sorts of assistance by giving them job satisfaction, rewards and substantial things to their faculty member that can ultimately enhance their individual performance to the greatest level. On the other hand, Zakari (2011) argue that leadership is concerning the abilities, skills, attitude, and information crucial for the attainment of quality advantages, which is important given the number of educational institution endeavoring to weave quality plans into their strategic orientation.

This chapter consists of three major areas. First, general information about Yemen. an overview of Yemeni education system before and after the unification is introduced to provide a background about the study

“Education is the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life” ("Education",2017). Prosperity and rise of the society depends on education and knowledge. If the education reached to advanced and sophisticated level there will be a thrive country. Actually, education enhances in people futurism of looking at life by giving opinions and standpoints about things in life (Bhardwaj,2016). Therefore, each person in the society has to educate well whether in school, colleges, universities, home, and practical life for developed country and society. Unfortunately,

Higher education includes teaching, research and social service activities of universities, and within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level (sometimes referred to as tertiary education and the graduate school). Higher education generally involves work towards a degree level or foundation for degree qualification. In most developed countries a high proportion of the population (up to 50%) now enters higher education is therefore every important to national economy, both as a source of trained and educated personnel for the rest of the economy. Schofield, K. 1999.

Higher Education occupies a centre stage in this era of knowledge; it acts as a catalyst in promoting the acquisition of new knowledge and higher skills for development of physical and human resources and for building an environment of creative thinking and growth of individuality. There is general consensus that higher education is one of the vital factors of national development, an important social resource and means of reducing inequalities in the societies. Keeping in view the important role of higher education in transforming the society into a more enlightened, prosperous and civilized community, the Indian Governments (Central & State level both) and various Commissions & Committees paid special attention towards the growth and spread of higher education facilities in the country.