RIYADH, 6 September 2007 — The Ministry of Higher Education defended yesterday the selection process of the Kingdom’s scholarship program for post-graduate studies abroad, saying the program doesn’t discriminate against men. A ministry official made the remarks in response to rumors circulating in the media that female students are being given preferential treatment.
“The selection criterion for the King Abdullah External Scholarships Program is solely academic merit,” said Abdullah Almosa, director of the program.
“Gender has never been a factor in the selection of the candidates,” Almosa said without providing statistical information about the number of men and women that have received these scholarships since the program was launched two years ago.
When asked about the previous two years, Almosa simply said that many factors were taken into consideration, including the majors of the students in comparison to the needs of the Saudi job market. He pointed out that a candidate’s success also depends on his chosen destination in the seven countries in the program and the availability of seats there.
Almosa said 6,500 students would be selected from a short-list of 14,000 candidates seeking post-graduate degree levels. He did not provide the gender ratio of the 14,000 short-listed students.
