IT MAY not be quite the country for the usual university experience: moving out of home; experimenting; dating. Nor does it have Egypt’s long history of scholarship, with the likes of the Al Azhar university, which has been going since the tenth century. But Saudi Arabia is gaining an unlikely reputation for learning in the Middle East. Earlier this year it gained three of the top four spots in an annual ranking of Arab universities by Times Higher Education (THE), a British weekly magazine. Topping the chart was King Abdulaziz University in the western city of Jeddah, which was founded only in 1967.
The kingdom rarely pulls things off as well as, let alone better than, its more savvy fellow Gulf states. But in higher education it has steamed ahead. One reason is that many Saudis have long gone to study in Europe and America. Some return with top-notch degrees and go into academic teaching. In recent years the kingdom has also had the cash to attract foreign academics on the promise they can carry out research. That has paid off with an increasing number of mentions in academic journals, which is one of the indicators used...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1RNmz2m
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