by WAGDY SAWAHEL
Saudi Arabia is seeing massive development in higher education. This is in line with a plan to achieve goals outlined by Khaled Al-Anqari, the minister of higher education, in a statement released at an international higher education conference held in the capital Riyadh from 16-19 April.
Under the plan, the government has allocated more than US$44 billion of its budget to higher education and workforce training – an increase of 13% over last year.
The number of Saudi universities has quadrupled in recent years. There are now 33 universities and the goal is to have 40 within the next 25 years.
The country has also established an e-university, to provide a modern learning environment and expand university enrolment, as more than half of the country’s 27 million people are under 25 years of age.
New universities have greatly enhanced the capacity of universities. Saudi Arabia now has about a million students in universities distributed in all 77 regions and governorates – while in 1969 there was only one university (Riyadh, now called King Saud University) and seven colleges with a total student number of about 5,000.
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