JEDDAH, 5 September 2007 — In spite of being overjoyed at being short-listed for the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah External Scholarships, many aspiring postgraduate students are struggling to get their applications together after being given a short period of time — two to seven days — to submit their admission papers, many of which need translating.
According to Al-Watan newspaper, 14,000 students, out of 20,000 who applied for the scholarships, began receiving SMS text messages earlier in the week that they have been accepted for interviews.
Students have been asked to arrive at the Ministry of Higher Education offices across the Kingdom within two to seven days. This has caused many applicants to panic, as obtaining relevant documents takes time. Many needed to visit their university to obtain English versions of their graduation certificates, while others were left with the difficult task of obtaining letters of recommendation from former teachers, who are currently away on summer vacation.
Those who have failed to get an English transcript of their graduation certificate are visiting translation offices, which have been struggling in the past two days to cope with the huge influx of documents from students applying for scholarships.
“I was delighted to receive an SMS that I was accepted for an interview. However, I am confused now; I would prefer to know beforehand about the papers that I needed to submit. Five days’ notice is too short,” said Dalal Muhammad.
“I have to contact my teachers to get a letter of recommendation and I’m not sure if I’m going to find them because most of them don’t start work till next week,” she said, adding that she has also found it stressing to find a translation office that would translate her certificate in a day.
Arab News tried to contact several translation offices. Only two answered their phones. “We cannot take it any more. The demand is very high. Some of my friends’ offices have stopped taking calls and directed students to other translation offices because of the high demand,” said Abu Ammar, owner of a translation office in Jeddah.
He added that he has never received so many requests in a day. “More than 70 people are calling me each day asking me to translate their admission papers ... they all want their translations in an hour because of the short time they have to submit their applications. This has been very tough for us,” he said.
Abdul Salam, another translator, said, “It is very difficult to deal with angry students and parents especially if they come to Jeddah from neighboring cities such as Taif or Baha. It is hard to turn them down, yet it’s hard to accept their requests. We are trying our best.”
Prices have doubled or tripled. “We had to raise our rates to cover the expenses of hiring extra employees to cope with the demand,” said Abdul Salam.
With 30 to 40 students being asked to attend interviews at a time, many students complained that they could not find parking space when they arrived at the Education Ministry offices.
Majid Al-Harbi, director of the scholarship program, said that 6,000 students have already failed to qualify, as they were unable to meet application requirements. He also said the majority applied for higher studies in subjects relating to computer science.
