Fifteen foreign universities and four major international banks have been given permission to open branches in the Kingdom. The move signals a new era of selective openness that will further integrate us into the world. Until recently such integration has been confined to trade and the exchange of goods through conventional import-export formulas. The opening of so many foreign institutions in our country is no small thing. The reasons justifying it are many: the size of the Saudi market, a strong economy, the free flow of capital and the anticipated flow of foreign investment.
Now that these foreign universities have been licensed to operate, how will we cope with the effect that their presence will have on the country? What will be their role in producing new cultural trends in the community? What will be their long-term effect?
I don’t claim to have answers to these questions and I leave it to the experts to provide answers and tell us how prepared we are for future changes. On the educational level, however, I think we must be able to come up with a progressive vision that will enable us to benefit from the qualitative leap that the presence of 15 foreign universities will definitely produce.
In the past, the Kingdom sent many students to leading universities in the United States, Europe and the Muslim world. Upon returning home, the graduates established a strong base of professors and academics that were familiar with the customs and experiences of other nations. Foreign universities are now coming to us, confident that a large number of Saudis want to pursue higher education inside the country instead of abroad.
The huge challenge now facing our universities is to prove their ability to compete. They must prove that they are capable of producing what our job market needs.
