“Among these students 15 percent have joined courses of medicine and medical sciences, 14 percent for computer science courses, 10 percent for engineering courses and 26 percent for administrative and financial courses,” said Abdullah Al-Moussa, deputy higher education minister for scholarship affairs.
He said the foreign scholarship program initiated by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah would contribute to the Kingdom’s efforts to become a knowledge economy. “Its graduates will also meet the Kingdom’s labor market requirements,” he told businessmen at Asharqia Chamber in Dammam.
Of the total students on foreign scholarships, 47,397 have joined for bachelor degree courses, 22,370 for master’s degree courses, 5,026 for doctoral degree courses and 1,835 for fellowship courses.
“The main objective of this scholarship program is to help our students gain high standard of academic and professional qualifications. Our students have been sent abroad to specialize in subjects required by the Kingdom’s job market,” said Al-Moussa.
The US has received 30 percent of Saudi scholarship students, followed by the UK 15 percent, Canada 11 percent, Australia 8 percent and Egypt six percent.
“Saudi Arabia has the highest percent of students to foreign universities, compared to other countries,” Al-Moussa said.
