Talking to Arab News, a number of students said they were being ignored by the officials in charge of education and employment.
“We had big dreams of serving our country through this important and rare specialization. We planned for future studies and research works that would qualify us for international prizes. But we discovered that it was impossible to realize our dreams inside our country. Some of us started to look to other countries, where they would be appreciated,” said a biochemistry graduate who did not want his name published.
One of the graduates, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that biochemistry colleges graduated geniuses all over the world except in the Kingdom.
Graduates of biochemistry colleges at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah and King Saud University in Riyadh have the same complaint: negligence and lack of recognition.
They said they could not find jobs, and if they did at all, they would be treated as technicians, not specialists. “This adds to our misery and trauma,” one of them said.
They also complained that during their years of study, they lacked practical training in proper labs. “Our ambitions and constructive ideas have been destroyed by the demoralization we faced from the ministries of higher education, health and labor,” said a graduate who did not want to be identified.
He said obtaining scholarships to undertake postgraduate studies abroad or undergraduate training in the final year were not available for all of them. “Training during the final year costs SR12,000 per student, a sum many students cannot afford,” he added.
The graduates also complained that the graduation research was only theoretical, as there were no proper labs to conduct practical research. They said that biochemistry depended mainly on practical studies in order to produce qualified graduates.
The students and graduates resorted to Facebook and other electronic means of communications in order to be heard, but to little avail. Finally they turned to print media with the hope that their complaints will be heeded.
Some of them began considering traveling to other countries to realize their dreams, while others completely gave up on getting jobs in the field of their specialization, which one graduate described as “the basis of all scientific studies, including medicine.”
The students complained that wherever they went, they were either told that they were not qualified for the job or that their specialization was unknown to them.
The graduates were unanimous in their willingness to go through more training and study more subjects, but they said they were not willing to sit idle after many years of hard work.
The students said they had become skeptical after seeing what had happened to their colleagues who had graduated from biochemistry colleges. “What shall we do when we know that our colleagues who have graduated are still unemployed?” one student questioned.
Both the ministries of higher education and health asked the graduates to wait until the general budget was issued. “This was done, but still no jobs for us,” one graduate said.
They also said they were unable to help their families, who spent money on their education and felt they had wasted their time studying biochemistry.
