¶ … Vision to Address the Challenges facing Higher Education in Saudi Arabia in the light of Leadership and Excellence Approach
Research Significance
It is generally agreed that higher education is the main tool to solve leadership and human resources problems. Unfortunately, mass production of graduates from Saudi higher education fails to meet the required specializations and quality of private sectors. Many Saudi graduates lack the practical knowledge that can assist them meeting rigorous demand of the labor market. Moreover, Saudi higher education is characterized by the rigid theoretical standards, and constraint of curriculum making the implementation of an enriched experimental learning technique to be extremely difficult.
In the last 10 years, higher education in Saudi Arabia has witnessed a quantitative and qualitative transformation. The investment in the Saudi educational development has been attributed to the country's strategic importance for the human resources and leadership development. Investment in education has also been attributed to the recent needs for the social and economic transformation that the Kingdom has witnessed within the last few decades. Despite significant investments in the Saudi Kingdom, the higher educational development in the Kingdom has witnessed major strategic challenges. Saudi educational systems have experienced a rapid transformation in the last few decades since education was most practiced in mosques using Qur'anic studies.(Al-Liheibi, 2008). However, influence of western education globally has made the Directorate of Education to establish a formal educational system to implement western type of education. (Alsharif, 2011).
In 1930, the Saudi established first published school, however, only male children were formally allowed to be enrolled in schools. Although, female students were formally enrolled into public schools in 1960, however, female enrollment in schools faced a strong opposition where some people viewed girls education as worthless venture because of the Sharia law that forbids women to work. Discouraging female children in the Saudi educational mainstream has led to a shortage of leadership in higher education in Saudi kingdom. By 2015, the Saudi total population is 29.9 Million and female population are 42% (12.5 Million) and male population are 52% (17.4 Million). The Saudi policy that cut out almost 42% of the population from participating in economic and political activities give rise to the leadership problems in Saudi higher educational system. (Alexander, 2011).
Moreover, Saudi educational system is struggling to be aligned with western education system because of the rigid and dominance of traditional system in education. Although, Saudi has embraced modern education system, however, the Quranic style of education still have a significant impact in the current educational system. In Saudi, educational conditioning fosters a memorization of the Quranic contents lacking the application of practical contents. The style in education hinders an individual ability to develop problem solving and critical thinking skills required to practice in globalized and modern society. (Deepanjana, 2015)
Ahmed, & Siddiek (2012) also argue that Arabs state suffer from low quality of education, low international raking and low research productivity. Thus, quality of education in the Saudi Kingdom has become headache to education planners and educationalists globally. Moreover, many conferences globally have raised the issues of quality of education in the Arab world. Nourah, Sue, & Avril (2014) contribute to the argument by pointing out that Saudi Universities score very low in the global university ranking.
Typically, "none of the Saudi universities are listed within the 392 leading educational institutions in the World; King Saud University, however, ranks 199th in Webometrics, and King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals ranks 404th." (Nourah, Sue, & Avril, 2014 p 608).
The outcome of the survey from the Time Higher Education also shows that King Saudi University ranks 247th among the world university. Moreover, the "King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals" ranks 266th in the global university. (Nourah, Sue, & Avril, 2014 p 608). The performances of the Saudi universities are low compared to universities in many developing countries. A report carried out by the UNDP (2008) also reveals that Saudi has carried out a reform in the higher education, however, the reform has been unsatisfactory. (UNDP, 2008). (Nourah, Sue, & Avril, 2014 p 608).
Deepanjana, (2015) identifies leadership as an important tool for the development of university education. Typically, leadership competencies are very critical for sustainable growth and development. In the last few years, Saudi Arabia has embarked of Saudization program seeking to replace expatriate lecturers...
1) Education 2) Construction 3) Information Technology 4.3 Data collection method I will distribute the following surveys to the employees and employers in my sample population. I will give them two weeks to complete the surveys, after which I will collect them and analyze them. 4.4 Sample size and sampling method The sample size will be between 40-50 people. The sampling method include surveys as well as direct conversations. The employee surveys will gauge satisfaction with
Studies also suggest that Saudi women employed fail to make real contributions when they are at work, and that "real jobs" are often filled by more qualified foreigners capable of providing real economic function to the economy and the employer (Pharaon, 2004). There is also too little emphasis by government agents to address these problems and work at training or tailoring education to meet the needs of society at
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Lack of accountability, transparency and integrity, ineffectiveness, inefficiency and unresponsiveness to human development remain problematic (UNDP). Poverty remains endemic in most Gulf States with health care and opportunities for quality education poor or unavailable, degraded habitats including urban pollution and poor soil conditions from inappropriate farming practices. Social safety nets are also entirely inadequate and all form part of the nexus of poverty that is widely prevalent in Gulf countries.
' Purchasing agents can place orders, gather information, and communicate with different organizations from any place at any time" (Martin & Hafer, p. 41). Following the introduction of the Internet, many purchasing departments and purchasing representatives were better able to engage in direct communications, order taking and fulfillment as well as the provision of technical support with their business counterparts abroad (Martin & Hafer, 2002). These authors add that, "The
A woman can be neither a political leader nor a judge; she must only appear in public modestly dressed, and her natural and sacred task is to keep the household smoothly functioning and to raise and instruct her children to be good Muslims. Men, for their part, must shoulder the burden of providing for the family in material ways. Liberation for a woman does not mean being like a
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