Larry Smith and Abdulrahman Aboummoh (eds): Higher education in Saudi Arabia: Achievements, challenges and opportunities

Abstract

This book provides the audience with a detailed overview of Higher Education in Saudi Arabia. It joins a very small club of books written in the English language that seeks to enhance our understanding of higher education in Saudi Arabia. What separates this study from its predecessors is that it prescribes a remedy for the Kingdom’s inability to produce a significant level of knowledge workers. The book covers major aspects of the Saudi higher education system including its history, structure, governance, approach, teaching and learning methods, research output, quality and accreditation, development towards internationalisation, female education and private higher education in the Kingdom. The book consists of 17 chapters by 32 authors. 17 of whom are Saudi (53 %) from the Ministry itself and other local higher education institutions and 15 non-Saudi academics (47 %) from Australia, Ireland, South Korea, UK and USA. This in turn provides internal and also external perspectives on all issues discussed. In the initial chapters, chapters one to four, a general overview of the system is discussed. The glaring issue in this section seems to be an incessant focus on the inability of Saudi universities to attain ‘world class’ standards. The lack of realistic understanding is troubling, particularly when we realise that in order for the Saudi university sector to be considered ‘world class’ it would have to undergo a complete overhaul of the present system, an overhaul that would touch matters of governance leadership and public disquiet. Aleasa (2012) highlights these matters showing that the main issues are ‘autonomy and flexibility in decision-making’. This is because education is fully funded by the state, thus government influence remains an important factor. In the following chapters, chapters five to eight, the authors discuss some of the internal aspects of higher education. The quality of teaching and learning, we are told is a responsibility shared between academics, department chairs, college deans, university