It is obvious these days that the number of Saudis receiving college scholarships to study abroad is higher than ever. This is a positive move.
However, there is a negative side to sending Saudi students abroad to study professions that already exist in our universities. Students not only learn from the university, but also from the host society. And these lessons can be harder than any demanding college course.
Sending teenagers that just graduated from high school abroad is very dangerous, especially if they go to a country that is radically different than ours.
Our students do not learn their culture and religion properly in terms of proper social skills. How can we send them into a totally different society and expect them to adapt adequately?
I wish that Education Ministry officials would visit the US Embassy when visas are being issued in order to see how disorganized Saudi students behave. They do not stand in line, and they are incapable of answering questions effectively. Some of our students even lie in their responses and are proud of it. These students, used to lying to officials in the Kingdom, can fall easily to American justice when they lie or provide false information to US officials.
One of the bad habits that our students take with them when they go abroad is the culture of sexual harassment. They cannot take this culture to America. American woman can easily report sexual harassment to authorities. Saudis that engage in sexual harassment can end up arrested, charged, jailed, and deported. In this system that often sides with the woman in sexual harassment cases, what do you think happens when the accused is an Arab?
Furthermore, Saudi students will face a justice system that doesn’t recognize the Saudi practice of “wasta” (connections with higher ups that can get you out of trouble with the law).
And what about the Saudi way of driving? With highly organized and patrolled traffic systems in America, and the West in general, I do not think Saudi students would last very long on their roads.
Adapting to a foreign culture is a big challenge for grown-ups. What about teenagers fresh out of high school, living away from home for the first time?
And the situation in the United States has changed considerably from a decade ago. Saudis are associated with terrorism, due to the negative portrayal of Saudi society in the media.
The problems with young Saudi students living abroad has little to do with their education back home, but rather their ignorance of laws and customs in their host countries.
Saudi college students are a national treasure that should not be thrown into the hands of a different culture that they know nothing about. The money spent on sending them abroad could be better spent on developing more colleges and universities here at home.
