I feel this is a serious and dangerous issue and, therefore, I am going to continue discussing the topic of students that go on scholarships to the United States. I will definitely return to the same issue if it is not resolved quickly; not just in Washington but in many other countries. However, for today, I will address Saudi students on scholarships in the US.
The issue does not just concern two or three people; it is about thousands of students studying abroad. When the US opened its doors for scholarships, I believe the government there eased all necessities that are necessary for students to study abroad whether in regulations, systems and budgets. It is unacceptable and unbelievable that the idea of sending students on scholarships has been negative for some students because of Saudi cultural attaches. They seem to be paralyzed when it comes to helping or serving students and this is exactly what is happening in Washington.
Some scholarship students in the US believe this miserable situation is not limited to the insufficient and inadequate relationship that exists between them and the attache. They find it impossible to enter the attache or to get someone to respond to their needs, but it goes beyond that.
Harvard is one of the top universities in the world and no longer trusts the financial insurances issued from the Saudi attache in Washington. This is simply because the attache doesn’t pay tuition fees on a regular basis. Some students in Washington say they have had to pay their tuition fees for the current semester from their own pocket. The university basically informed them that the record of the previous attache is not trustworthy. The same is happening with many other universities and hospitals, and other sectors. One of the students said to me that he doesn’t know where the money is going and they have no logical explanation to what is happening.
I think and strongly believe that there are certain individuals who are blocking the flow of money from reaching those students smoothly. I wish I could identify these suffocating entities, but unfortunately I cannot. Probably the most important thing we could do to stop this is to unblock these financial suffocations.
If the Saudi attache continues to stop the necessary financial aid that supports our students abroad, then many of them may find no solution other than coming back empty-handed. And what then? These students who once had ambitions and dreams will start to feel pain and frustration because of “administrative corruption” that did not just invade our public and private sectors, but was exposed by Harvard University also.
