| The higher education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia began in the year of1949. Along with the dramatic development of its petroleum industry and the participation in global economy, the higher education of Saudi Arabia, functioning vitally in modern human resource development, encounter great challenges. Over half a century, the guiding principle entitled ’Islamic and professional’has been adopted in higher education, leading to a huge success. Due to historical, religious and social factors, problems still exist in the higher education of Saudi Arabia and great challenges still lie ahead. This paper studies its history, current status, characteristics, problems and challenges. To date,24public universities,9private universities and hundreds of higher learning institutions have been established in the kingdom. The higher education in Saudi Arabia is characterized by the following features. Firstly, traditional religious institutions and secularized modern institutions coexist, namely’double-track system’. The most recent trend is the increasing of modern institutions, namely’one-track system’. Secondly, the government has invested enormously on higher education, but returns are considered modest. Students majoring in humanities still largely surpass those specializing in sciences and engineering. There is a huge gap between the output of higher education and the requirements of domestic labor market. Thirdly, higher education for female has experienced a dramatic increase and their contribution in the workforce betters under’sex segregation’, but their low participation in domestic labor market remains a fact of life. Finally, the government strives to deepen education reform and acquires internationalization of higher education, through educational vision and aim, infrastructures and information systems, fields of study and curriculum, faculty and students mobility, academic and educational seminars and symposiums, joint scientific research and world university ranking. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between P.R. China and Saudi Arabia, the exchange of higher education between the two parties has been initiated towards a promising future. |
