JEDDAH, 2 February 2005 — A list of recommendations addressing the core issues identified in Crown Prince Abdullah’s opinion document on higher education was presented during the final session of a two-day workshop at King Abdul Aziz University on Tuesday. The recommendations look at ways of improving the education system and its content.
Chaired by Minister of Higher Education Dr. Khaled Al-Angari, the recommendations session addressed building the scientific and technical base of the curriculum; achieving concurrence between education output and development requirements; developing education and training curricula; increasing the cooperation between education institutes in the Gulf countries and the interest in education partnership issues.
Under each of these five points a list of recommendations and mechanisms for implementing them were presented. Among them were the establishment of a center for developing the skills of faculty members and ways of exchanging expertise; establishing centers for e-learning; developing financial and administrative systems in the education institutes and increase spending on higher education institutes including increase of scientific research to represent one percent of the expenses in each institute.
When some of the attendees expressed skepticism about implementation of the recommendations, Dr. Al-Angari assured everyone that the recommendations would be presented to the ministers of higher education in their forthcoming meeting.
During the question and answer period preceding the recommendation session, many attendees asked about the lack of cooperation between the universities in such things as faculty exchange, research, student transfer and degree equivalency.
Dr. Mohsen Al-Dosari from the Arab Education Office said the office is a coordinating agent for implementing the recommendations but the universities have not been cooperating in the programs. He said that while some programs are a success, many others are stalled for bureaucratic and financial reasons. A proposal was made to establish a center for developing higher education, but some attendees said there is a need to develop undergraduate level education too.
The first day of the workshop included lectures and panel discussion on distance learning and building the scientific and technical base for distant learning and the education system with a focus on increasing the technical and scientific fields of education.
The coordination and compatibility of the education and training institutes and curricula with the job market generated lively discussion. Dr. Abdullah Dahlan, chairman of Business Administration College in Jeddah, spoke on the role of private universities and colleges in achieving the mating of education output and job market needs. He said the Kingdom needs 200 private universities or colleges in the next five years.
“There is a big gap between the supply and demand for college seats of about 187,000 and private colleges can provide these seats with careful planning and implementation of a strategy in cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education, but there are obstacles to receiving funds and loans from the Ministry of Finance delaying the decision by the Council of Ministers for providing these funds,” he said.
Another critical issue discussed on the first day of the workshop was concerning the quality and standard of the faculty members. A lecture by Dr. Mariam Al-Sabban from Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah on how to choose a faculty member, how to prepare them and the value of staff evaluation received positive response.
The final day of the workshop covered issues about curriculum development, education restructuring and strategic planning. There was a suggestion of establishing a center for serving female students and faculty members by Dr. Laila Al-Ghalib because of the difficulties women face in career guidance and training.
