ALKHOBAR, 13 December 2005 — Last month during the visit of Intel Corporation Board Chairman Dr. Craig R. Barrett, Arab News asked him, “What should students choose for a major at university?” He chucked and admitted that this is one of the most common questions he’s asked.
“I have four grandchildren who have asked me that same question,” remarked Barrett. “The oldest is at Stanford and she is majoring in pre-med — not on my advice. She is however good at math and science and she is drawn to medicine. What I tell people is, when you graduate from a university, if you’re an average person, you are going to work for 40 plus years. So you’d better work at something you enjoy. Your task is to get the best education you can and get a job in doing something you really enjoy.”
Barrett emphasized that right now globally there is a serious shortage of engineers and pure scientists. There are many reasons for this. One is that people can often make far more money by majoring in something else — such as economics for example. This means that society needs to find ways to better value and support engineers. School systems need to recruit better teachers for science and math. Children taught poorly, often struggle with math and science concepts and may abandon these subjects. Better teachers would encourage budding talent.
The truth is that the technology that is turned into products and services and drives the world’s economies is generally initially created by pure scientists, frequently working in tandem with engineers. That said, not everyone should become a scientist or engineer.
“You don’t tell people to be engineers or doctors, you tell them to go to as good a school as you can afford and get the best education you can,” explained Barrett. “While you’re at university, see what subject matter interests you and study that. Then try to get a job doing something you love so you look forward to going to work everyday. Whether you are going to be an art history major or a sociology major, an archaeology major or an engineer — that’s beside the point. All talents are needed, not just engineers. A healthy distribution of professional development is needed. Life is a long time and it’s too long not to work at something you enjoy.”
As for graduate study, Barrett believes it is an important way to refine skills, but again states that there is no preferred field of study.
“I think the individual is more important than the degree,” said Barrett. “The MBA can be a useful learning process, just as studying for the masters in engineering can be a useful learning process. Going to law school is the same. Hopefully, from studying any discipline you come out with certain tools. The essence of graduate study in any discipline is not too different. The languages are different but the fundamental concepts of problem solving are not all that different.”
What do young people think about higher education? To find out, Arab News interviewed several young men studying at Saudi Arabia’s premier higher education institution, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran.
Merwais Shinwari is a senior majoring in computer engineering. He chose computer engineering over a pure science major, such as biology or chemistry, because he was interested in solving real world problems.
“In pure science, things stop at theoretical levels,” Shinwari said. “In engineering things go past those points and move on to the ability to tackle real problems in any system that involves engineering. Engineering helps you expand the way you think. You learn how people tackled problems before and then you can use those same processes and procedures and even expand upon them to tackle problems in general life.”
In the near future, Shinwari said his focus will necessarily shift from his studies to finding a job. Eventually he looks forward to completing a masters in electrical engineering.
“At first everyone has to work for someone. But in the end who doesn’t want to go out on their own?” he asked. “I think that the trends toward starting to offer venture capital in Saudi Arabia are great. Venture capital is excellent for any innovator who needs funding and doesn’t have personal wealth. This levels the playing field and allows anyone with an excellent idea to go for it.”
While earning a degree with clear practical applications may make it easier to land a good job, some students are still attracted to studies which may take longer to achieve real world success. Omar Al-Zuhaibi, a junior studying for a degree in physics, is pleased to be majoring in a theoretical science.
“I like theoretical science. At this school they treat engineering as a means of producing students that can benefit big companies. They don’t teach engineering as the science it should be,” said Al-Zuhaibi. “At first I was in electrical engineering at KFUPM. I liked electronics since elementary school, but physics is the most interesting to me. I spoke with an associate professor, Zain H. Yamani, and he actually convinced me that physics has a future.”
Al-Zuhaibi did very well in physics in high school. However, he like many others, didn’t initially take up physics as a major because he was afraid he wouldn’t get a job easily on graduation.
“I think in Saudi Arabia there is a need to invest more in research and development,” he advised. “Physics is very theoretical and involves a lot of math. It is a foundation science that is at the base of many real world applications. If more physics majors thought that they would have a realistic chance of a job, then you would see more talented people going into this field.”
What is certain is that students need more information about available engineering and science majors. They also need exposure to individuals working in those fields.
Abdullah Al-Fardan, a junior in civil engineering, admits that he found his major by accident.
“Initially, I was looking for an architecture course and chose civil engineering by mistake,” said Al-Fardan. “I took a course in statics and mechanics and got an A+ in both. It was a surprise. Actually, I’m really good in math and physics and both those courses relate a lot to those subjects so it was a natural fit.”
Al-Fardan is quite enthusiastic about math and physics, which he knows is an unusual attitude.
“I always enjoyed math and physics, even in high school,” he explained. “The way the students think here, they avoid these subjects. You need good imagination to tackle math and physics. Unfortunately, the Saudi school system doesn’t encourage imagination — only memorization.”
Abdullah Alsmail, a senior studying computer engineering, is another student who used interests from childhood to launch him on a successful university career.
“Ever since I was a kid I got into videogames and that got me interested in computers,” he said.
Alsmail is already employed part-time at Naizak, a private Saudi company, and he is thinking of joining them full-time after graduation. After working a few years, then he’d like to work on his masters.
“There are good employment opportunities in the Saudi market, but you have to look for them,” he commented. “People prefer to work in bigger companies with bigger names but I believe you can get much better experience in the small- and medium-sized firms in the private sector. One big problem right now with graduates having just a bachelors degree is that they don’t have any specialty in their field. Universities need to offer more specializations within majors. For example offering computer networking and computer architecture within computer engineering. This would improve the quality of the graduates which would benefit the local economy.”
Bassam Al-Maaesh, a junior in management of information systems (MIS), agrees that there needs to be some restructuring of the degrees offered.
“I was in computer engineering but I didn’t like it because the focus was too much on the code and I like analysis. So I decided to switch to MIS,” he said. “MIS gives me knowledge in the business field, finance, accounting and marketing plus some knowledge of programming design and analysis. In the future, my job will be to plan, design and analyze a system. Then a programmer will write the code under my direction.”
Al-Maaesh believes that to be even more valuable for the market, students of MIS need to have a stronger background in programming.
“MIS graduates are the medium between the user and programmer,” he explained “Graduates of this course probably should study more programming. Then they would be better able to handle the implementation aspect of the project too.”
Students clearly understand that the market is competitive. At the end of the day the chance for a bright future is the greatest motivating factor for selecting a field of study.
“I studied industrial engineering, because I have a cousin who studied it, liked it and makes a very good salary due to his major,” said Ahmad Salah Hussein. “After I get my first degree then I hope to eventually get my MBA. My plan is to start out working for a good company for five or six years to get some experience and then set up my own business.”
What has been most important for Hussein at university?
“The instructors are the most important thing at KFUPM,” he said. “I learned early on that great instructors make students love the subject. We need more of them. For myself, I would like to thank Professor Salih Duffuaa, professor of industrial engineering and operations research at KFUPM, because he made me love industrial engineering. If you love the learning, then of course you will succeed.”
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