11 - Private higher education and graduate employability in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Graduate unemployment has been a serious problem in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi higher education system has been criticized for not meeting the labor market’s needs. Statistics show that higher education graduates have been specializing in subjects that are not needed in the labor market. In addition, graduates of higher education institutions have been found to lack the generic skills deemed important in the current competitive economy. The purpose of this chapter is to show how private higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia are addressing the existing gap between higher education and the labor market. The evidence reveals that while the private higher education sector is relatively new in the country, private higher education institutions have been tackling graduate employability issues through their curricular and extracurricular activities and career-related services. These include the kind of subjects being offered, teaching methods used, the use of English language for instruction, structured work experience, and career center services.