On the ministry’s website there is an updated list of universities it will not send students to.

Sixty-three universities and educational institutions have been listed from seven countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, the United States, Canada, Pakistan, New Zealand and Jordan.

At a 2010 student convention in Riyadh, Abdullah Al-Mousa, general supervisor of the ministry’s department of scholarships, confirmed the reason some British and Australian universities had been omitted from the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program was because a large number of Saudi students were already there.

The ministry felt it was important to limit the number of students accepted at universities and colleges so they could do well in their English and general studies.

“There are more than 15,000 Saudi students on the King Abdullah scholarship in the UK. This is a large number that has led to an overcrowding of Saudi students at some universities there. The ministry decided to start sending students to other countries to rectify this,” said Al-Mousa.

The overcrowding of students at certain universities was a small issue before the scholarship program was introduced.

However, after the program was introduced, the number of universities temporarily suspended from accepting Saudis increased dramatically.

Dr. Mohammad Al-Hizan, spokesman for the ministry, told Arab News: “When a Saudi student is in a class where there are many other Saudis, the benefits diminish as they will form cliques and not learn English as they should.”

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Geoff Layer from the University of Bradford, which is among those temporarily suspended from accepting Saudi students, confirmed to Arab News that there are 154 citizens from the Kingdom studying at the university.

“Over 20 percent of the university’s student body are international and come from nearly 150 countries. We have extensive experience of supporting students from many different cultures, particularly in developing English language skills,” he said.

Saudis were divided in their views on the issue.

Twenty-two-year-old Omar Abdulaziz, who is planning to go to Canada to continue his higher education in accounting and was not able to study at any university in the UK because of the overcrowding problem, told Arab News that ultimately it is up to the students if they want to learn.

“I do not agree that universities should be temporarily suspended from accepting Saudis because of the large number already there. Any student has the ability to learn regardless of his or her interaction with others from the same country.”

Mother of three Areej, a 26-year-old Saudi studying at the University of Kansas, said the overcrowding issue could be a positive thing, claiming that students from the Kingdom who are abroad often complain for personal reasons about the large number of compatriots at their university, not education reasons.

Areej said that she does not feel homesick because there are plenty of Saudi families around her.

“Saudi families tend to group together and live in the same compound or next door to each other for support. As for overcrowding at the university, it depends on the students themselves. It is not the case in my opinion that large numbers of Saudi students at the same university would damage their quality of education. If that was the case, then what about the Saudi students studying in Saudi universities?” she added.

Ahmed Al-Seef, a 25-year-old engineering student in Melbourne, said: “I do agree to some extent that overcrowding at the university might harm the quality of education for Saudi students. In most cases, they tend to group together, refuse to mix with others and speak Arabic in the class. They do depend a lot on each other and refuse to depend on themselves.”