Saudi Arabia: Higher Education Observatory

During an international exhibition on higher education in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia has launched an 'Observatory on Higher Education', a national body for higher education that includes student experiences, courses, planning, assessment and evaluation. The Observatory will review the current higher educational sector, collect, manage, analyse and publish information on the sector, as well as connect institutions with a national network for decision-making. Saudi Arabia has designated more than a quarter of its 2009 budget for education and training to emphasise the significance of investing in human resource development as the core of sustainable knowledge-based development and is beginning to take its place in the world science at both regional and international levels through its rapid and substantial growth in the higher education sector. Based on many factors, including government spending, the Economist in 2008 placed Saudi Arabia in seventh place ahead of France, Russia, Italy, Spain, Malaysia and many other countries in the field of higher education. Saudi government has also started instituting a series of initiatives for enhancing access to higher education for women. Currently, more than 300 higher education institutes exist for women in Saudi Arabia alongside universities under the patronage of the Ministry of Education. Women represent more than 56% of Saudi university students and more than 20% of those benefiting from overseas scholarship programmes.

Source: IDB E-Monthly Bulletin, 21^st February 2010