DAMMAM, 22 September 2003 — Neighboring Bahrain, which stopped the admission of Saudi students to Bahrain University, is now reconsidering its decision. Students in the Eastern Province hope that they will soon be readmitted.
Last month Bahrain announced that it was banning Saudi students from the university as there were not enough places for Bahraini students. It was estimated that Saudi students constituted some 30 percent of student numbers at Bahrain University.
There are two universities in the Eastern Province — King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) and King Faisal University (KFU) with a branch in Al-Ahsa. KFUPM is basically a specialized institution offering primarily professional courses. KFU, on the other hand, is a conventional university offering social sciences as well as medical and other courses found in universities all over the world.
Students are admitted to KFUPM after passing an entrance examination. In order to qualify for the entrance test, a student must first have a high score on his secondary school examinations. Thus students who fail to get into KFUPM or do not find courses to their liking at either KFUPM or KFU go to Bahrain. An added advantage to Bahrain University are its night classes, and many working Saudis enrolled in night courses there.
According to one report, this year nearly 400 male and female Eastern Province students were denied admission to Bahrain University. Officials, however, accepted some Saudi students if one parent was Bahraini.
People in the education sector admit the strong need for another national university in the region. Both KFUPM and KFU were established more than 25 years ago. The population since then has increased considerably and these two are insufficient to accommodate Saudi students, said Saeed Al-Ghamdi, an academic here.
After Sept. 11, many Saudi students no longer went to Europe and America for educational reasons. As a result, demand for university education in the Gulf has increased. Other than seven universities in the Kingdom, the UAE and Bahrain are preferred destinations for Saudi students. With Bahrain banning Saudi students, the remaining option outside the Kingdom is Sharjah, where the American University is steadily acquiring a good reputation.
