I think our enthusiastic brothers at the Shoura did not make this recommendation after looking into matter carefully. The proposed amount of about SR200 would not pay for half of a mobile phone bill of a typical university student. At the same time, an extra SR200 to every university student every month would cost the public exchequer at least SR3 billion by the end of the fiscal year.

I want to ask a reasonable question: Do we actually need to give an extra SR200 every month to hundreds of thousands of our university students, or would it be wiser to invest SR3 billion to further the cause of higher education in Saudi Arabia?

I do not agree with the Shoura's recommendation, whose burden may not be easy to bear in the future. We can cite several examples for this from our past experiments. As they say: The camel that can carry a heavy load now will not be able to do so in the future.

What is needed is real investment that can benefit future generations. We have to adopt an analytical approach rather than sticking to poorly thought-out proposals. I am sure the members of the Shoura Council who put forward this proposal did not attach any research or other substantial evidence to support their argument that increasing student allowances would improve academic performance.

Two-thirds of a typical university student's allowance could go to rent and the mobile phone bill. Perhaps instead of marginally increasing the monthly allowance, the Kingdom should invest the money in more housing for students. Why don't we inherit the exemplary models set by King Saud and King Fahd in this respect?