Saudi Arabia has been slower than most countries in accepting distance education as a trustworthy method of delivering higher education. Instead, the Kingdom prefers an education system that is physical and in which students attend classrooms on a daily basis.
Nonetheless, this does not take away the fact that the Kingdom is suffering from a manpower shortage in several fields including engineering, aviation, science, health, agriculture, biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology.
Saudi graduates currently meet only a fifth of the country’s employment needs with 68 percent of science jobs being filled by graduates from abroad. For example, 60,000 pharmacists are presently needed annually, yet only 100 students graduate from this field in Saudi Arabia each year.
It is for this reason that Saudi Arabia in September announced the “Aafaq” (or “Horizon”) initiative, a 25-year plan that is being overseen by King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) to improve higher education by building new universities and colleges to turn out local graduates to satisfy the country’s employment needs.
But why spend billions on the construction of new universities and proceed with such a time-consuming plan instead of utilizing distance education and the graduates it can produce to fill the shortage of local talent?
In 2007, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah called for a national plan to adopt information technology across the Kingdom; a part of this plan included implementing e-learning and distance education, and their prospective application into higher education platforms.
Since then, a few institutions have begun introducing distance learning and incorporating e-learning into their curriculum as a means for Saudis to get a quality education at a Saudi university while still remaining at home.
Arab Open University is among the forerunners in introducing distance education into the Kingdom. Established in Saudi Arabia in 2003, the university is a physical university, which provides bachelors’ degrees in business, English language, and Information Technology and Computer. The university is affiliated with the UK Open University.
Knowledge International University (KIU) was opened in the fall of 2007 as a platform to provide knowledge entirely via the Internet, therefore becoming the Kingdom’s first completely virtual university.
“Our main goal is to bring higher education to people who are unable to enroll in studies programs at conventional universities,” the KIU website explains.
KIU currently offers Bachelor’s degrees from the College of Islamic Studies in Shariah and Qur’anic Studies in the Arabic medium and also the College of Islam Studies for non-Arabic Speakers with other degrees planned in the near future.
In addition, Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz University (KAU) has incorporated distance education into their curriculum by introducing the Deanship and Faculty of Distance Learning during 2005. The program is offered by the Faculty of Economic and Administration and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The programs involve incorporating the virtual classroom system of CENTRA with traditional education methods, providing lectures online while allowing students to interact with faculty via e-mail and other e-technologies.
“ It took us two years to design and develop quality course materials, offering the first undergraduate degree program in 2007 allowing us to become a pioneer and leader in the field of distance learning in the Kingdom,” Dr. Hisham Bardesi, Dean, Distance Learning at KAU told Arab News.
Dr. Bardesi said that more students are joining KAU online courses with nearly a 200 percent raise in enrollments in the 2009-2010 academic year with the first batch of distance learning students expected to graduate next year.
“We serve students throughout the Kingdom and our students come from a range of professions as we have programs of interest for almost everyone and are adding new courses and programs all the time,” he said.
Programs currently offered, according to Dr. Bardesi are Public Administration, Business Administration, Psychology, and English and Arabic Languages and are given fully online through a user-friendly online learning management system.
Speaking about accreditation isssues, Dr. Bardesi said that all KAU’s undergraduate programs are approved by the Ministry of Higher Education. “Our distance learning courses are recognized and externally validated plus we are coming from over 35 years of experience in higher education,” he said, adding that all courses are well-written, well researched, interactive, easy to understand and instructed by world-class faculty.
“ The level of satisfaction of our students with their learning experience suggests that the distance education using effective technology products and applications could be a better option for those students who do not want to or can afford to attend campus education due to their work conditions and distance of commute to the University,” Dr. Bardesi concluded.
Also based at KAU is the Saudi Society of Distance Education with Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, as the society’s honorary president. The organization was founded to help coordinate and promote distance learning among the existing facilities of higher education already present in the Kingdom.
So if distance education has proven to be beneficial why hasn’t is caught on quicker? The biggest hindrance keeping Saudis from earning their degrees online is the previous lack of acceptance and authentication of degrees by the Ministry of Higher Education and lack of local availability of online degrees in the Kingdom.
“The fact is that many have lost money and years of their lives studying online to find out that their degrees are not accepted and that is tragic,” said Dina Mohammed, a Saudi student who had been studying online for a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the US-based University of Michigan.
“I had studied for two years before finding out that my degree would not be accepted by the Ministry of Higher Education. I immediately withdrew and am now completing my studies at CBA in Jeddah.
The accreditation process is done through the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM) in association with the Saudi Embassy located in the country where the degree is earned. SACM attests that the degree is accredited and acceptable according to Saudi Ministry of Higher Education guidelines.
Once stamped by SACM, the graduate should have it further stamped by the Ministry of Higher Education in Saudi Arabia to prove acceptance and be able to be employed with the degree. SACM has sections for secondary and tertiary degrees.
The ministry’s rigorous accreditation process has also been blamed for many not being able to find employment at all even though the earned degrees are accredited by numerous national and internationally recognized accreditation organizations within the universities’ home countries and around the world.
“I haven’t been able to be employed since returning from the US or enroll in a local Saudi university because the Ministry of Higher Education refuses to acknowledge my US-earned high school diploma,” Hani Mohammed told Arab News.
“I have had it accredited by the US Embassy’s Education Department and it is recognized by the US Department of Education in Washington D.C. as well as the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). The ministry still refuses to recognize it saying that it was received through distance education.”
Mohammed said that he had got the diploma stamped in Washington D.C. by SACM as acceptable. “I then sent it to Riyadh to be authenticated by the Ministry of Higher Education but was told it was lost. I then obtained an original copy of the diploma from the school and attempted to have it re-stamped by SACM but they refused saying they ‘have never stamped any diplomas from distance education or correspondence schools as per the Ministry of Higher Education guidelines,’” he said.
The only option I have now is to repeat my high school studies in the Kingdom or stay unemployed,” he said, adding that he feels that by overlooking distance education degrees, the Kingdom is missing out on a huge opportunity.
“For example, if someone is abroad or studying via online learning they not only learn academic lessons but also lessons about how to think open-mindedly and at the same time gain experience and insightful ideas they would like to bring to the Kingdom and they can’t because they’re not recognized as real degree holders,” he said.
“To remedy the fear that the degrees are not genuine or beneficial Saudi Arabia could create a standardized test that graduates could take and if you passed them then they would prove their qualifications and show the Ministry of Higher Education that the degree deserves authentication and would even help in increasing Saudization,” he said, adding that distance education could be the answer to solving so many social and economic problems.
