The private sector and our varsities: A lack of partnership

I am not writing this article because I am a member of the academic circle, nor am I writing it in support of the Saudi universities. I am doing so because I have lived through the realities of the partnership between the private sector and the universities, which can only be described as humble and not commensurate with the size of this sector, which produces half of the GDP, nor the potential of the Saudi universities and their scientific capabilities.
What drew my attention was an article published by the Financial Times on May 14 about educating and training of executives and the classification of the international universities that provide this kind of training, which covers wide areas including management, finance, marketing, administration, accountancy and others. What concerns me here is not the classification of the universities nor the statistics contained in the report, but the fact the largest kind of training for executives is available in the emerging economies, particularly in South America, Asia and the Middle East. The private companies there seek to train their executives in universities, which are normally outside their areas.
The private sector has social responsibilities it should honor, but it is not a charity organization. It should, however, make direct and indirect contributions to development and should also work in harmony with educational institutions. This demand should not be taken for granted. There should be limits for the professional competition among the educational institutions to ensure fair distribution of opportunities. For instance, when we consider the financial costs of a training session on which the local and international universities compete, we will note that the private sector will not be happy about the large sums of money to be paid to the international universities. In addition to incurring the costs of the training session itself, the private sector (companies) will also have to pay the other expenses of the trainees, especially if the training is held outside the Kingdom such as in Europe or America.
The financial costs alone should not be used as a tool to choose where the training should be held. I am also not saying the private sector should give all trainings to the local universities or the relevant internal educational institutions.
I have witnessed a number of training courses and can safely say that many of our local universities are more qualified than the international ones to offer such courses especially that the staff has more knowledge about the local economy.
Nobody can deny that some private companies have developed partnerships with local universities, but this partnership is still below the desired level and is less than the available resources and potential.

The author is an associate professor of finance in King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.