Expatriates make up one-third of the Saudi population, but their children are not exposed to higher education within the Kingdom, as the facilities are restricted mostly to Saudis. So providing higher education to their children is one of the key concerns for expatriate families.
The Kingdom has 72 colleges in major government and private universities, which are not available to expatriate children. A number of Saudi universities do accept expatriate children, but charge higher fees for them. Here, most expatriate children face language problems and other difficulties. So, pursuing post-schooling education becomes difficult for these children if not impossible.
Hashem Saleh is a Palestinian graduate student, who now pursues an undergraduate degree in Jordan.
“I graduated from high school this year and tried to look for universities. All of them are expensive. Being a Palestinian, I cannot revert to my country, so I opted to pursue the rest of my education in Jordan. It was not an easy decision to leave the family and stay in a new country as I am not used to their way of life,” he said
Saleh is among many students who have graduated high school and went abroad to pursue their education.
Syed Rafi, an Indian father whose daughter expects to graduate next year, is already concerned about her college education. He is looking for an affordable college in Jeddah that would ease his tension of sending his daughter far away.
Rafi worries are common among the Southeast Asian community, since a majority of them are in low paid jobs. School and college fees take a large chunk out of their monthly earnings.
Salma Neyaz, an Indian mother of two children, said the outrageous fee structure forces the expatriate community to send their children outside the Kingdom.
“Children are the most precious gift we can receive in life as parents. I want to make sure they get their education while staying with their family.”
Asma, an expatriate housewife whose son is currently enrolled in a university in Jeddah said: “We have to bite the bullet.
We are already facing the impact of skyrocketing rents and rising prices of consumer goods. Expensive college education creates a big dent in our budget. Yet, we opted for his higher education here as we did not want to send him abroad.”
Ali Hussain, a 47-year-old Pakistani father of three children from Riyadh, said: “My elder daughter graduated from high school with A level results. Instead of sending her to my country, I got her enrolled in one of the private universities here.
I pay SR 50,000 per year. Almost my entire salary is spent on tuition fees for her and my other two children. I don’t really mind that, but when I compare the fees back home the difference is excessively high.”
Expatriate parents, especially those from the Southeast Asian community who cannot afford to educate their children in local colleges have registered their children for distance education offered by some prestigious universities and institutions from their countries. Kauser, an Indian student, said: “I chose to continue my education through a long distance program because there was no legal guardian in India to take care of me. Though I am dissatisfied with this kind of education, I have no other option.”
Another student of a correspondence course is Fatima Zuhra, who is currently studying BBA.
“With high scores and a good track record of academic excellence I applied for a program at King Abdulaziz University but was not granted admission. I ended up enrolling myself in a distance education university program.” She added that education is free for Saudi nationals, whereas expatriates have to cough up high fees.
Expat children struggle to obtain higher education
