The Effects and Influential Factors of
Globalization on the Saudi Higher Educational System
(Current Perspective)
Hend T. Al-Sudairy
Riyadh University for Girls
The General Agreement on Trades of Services (GATS) is the first large trade
agreement that focuses exclusively on the trade of services. The World Trade
Organization (WTO), an influential organization with 150 member countries,
administers the GATS. The GATS covers 12 service sectors and education is
one of them. Its aim is to chronologically and systematically promote
unrestricted trade in services, including education, which is this paper's focus,
by removing the existing barriers and commercializing the services as Jane
Knight asserts:
‘The GATS aims to capitalize on this market [education]
potential and promote further international trade in
education services by establishing rules and procedures
to eliminate barriers to trade.’
GATS is a voluntary agreement, but once a nation is a member of GATS it
becomes subject to the general obligations of the agreement. There is a price
for not signing the agreement: a country that is not a member does not have
equal access to those markets that are open for members and loses favorable
economic chances in markets.
Higher education, as I said, is one of the services which GATS aims at
removing barriers to competition. It is well known that the higher education
sector contains everything from public research universities to private
vocational schools and colleges deducted to different missions. It is important
to remember that education has traditionally been considered as part of social
and cultural milieu and that its regulations are within the national and
institutional boundaries as Trehan pinpoints:
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‘Education has traditionally been one of the tasks of
the nation states, either providing, financing or at least
regulating education has been the duty and privilege
of the state sovereignty.’ (101)
Recently, with the existence of new forces shaping the world and the shift
towards economic goals, education has been greatly influenced as Terhi
Nokkala pinpoints:
‘The traditional paradigm of education is, however,
shifting towards new instrumental values. Consequently,
education is moving towards the sphere of the ‘economic’
decision-making, which in its turn is becoming more and
more influenced by the ‘regional’, the ‘international’ and
the ‘global’.’(5)
This economic tendency in education is enforced by the existence of GATS.
Moreover, the new conditions that affect higher education pave the road for
GATS to play a critical influential role to act in higher education services
around the world. These conditions or forces are:
1- Globalization is the biggest challenge universities have to face in their
history. It brings with it:
expanded personal mobility; access to knowledge across
borders; increased demand for higher education (including
e-learning), especially in developing countries; growing
worldwide investment; and increased needs for adult and
continuing education. As a result, the opportunities and
capacities to expand the market for higher education have
also increased tremendously. (GATS-General)
2- Information communication technologies (ICTs) for domestic and crossborder delivery of programmes. There is an expansion of the information
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technology and improvement in communication technology besides a decrease
in its cost as Trehan demonstrates:
‘The capacity of new information and communication
technologies enables exciting educational strategies
to be delivered. Many universities are given closer
attention to clarifying learning objectives through
statements of attributes they expect graduates to develop
as a result of their course experience.’ (1)
3- Growing competition and the increase of educational cost and tuition fees.
Competition in higher education has increased greatly in recent years, and that
has led to a real concern and apprehension from foreign institutions in
developing countries. The developing countries fear that competition from rich
country providers will disadvantage their developing higher education systems
as the article ‘GATS-General’ expresses this fear:
‘Developing nations are also concerned that GATS
demands for unrestricted access in the higher education
sector will open the door to foreign diploma mills and
providers of questionable quality, which these countries
do not yet have the capacity to monitor or police.’ (GATSGeneral)
4- The ability of government to sponsor the increasing demand for higher
education.
These forces are very influential, especially in the developing countries, and
Arab countries are not an exception. In order to understand the economic
impact and consequently the challenge of GATS to the educational Arab
system, one needs to examine the educational situation in this part of the world.
The 2003 Arab Human Development Report expresses an apprehension that
Arab countries may fall short in providing qualified and equities education than
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the average of other countries. There is a high rate of illiteracy as Munira
Fakhro declares:
‘The number of illiterate people is increasing reported
at nearly 60 million illiterate adults at present, the
majority of whom are women. Furthermore this
situation carries the threat that the education systems
in the Arab countries will be split into two unrelated
sectors: very expensive private education, enjoyed by
the better-off minority, the poor-quality government
education for the majority.’ (9)
Moreover, higher education suffers from decreasing enrolment rates, public
expenditure on education is low, and there is a shortage of information and data
for the students to use. Add to that list a cadre of poorly trained teachers. All of
these factors will affect the quality of education, not only at universities and
schools, but also at vocational schools and colleges as well, because whoever
joins any vocational or training programme is a student who dropped out of
school:
‘Vocational training programmes tend to target those who
have dropped out of the educational system for academic
reasons; thus graduates of such programmes are often ill
prepared for the job market and stay unemployed for long
periods.’ (Ibid 10)
This vocational system is growing with no ‘analysis of market requirements, no
coherent national strategy, and weak linkages to the private sector’ (Ibid 11).
In such circumstances and because of low educational standards and
outcomes, Arab countries are obliged to embrace globalization and open their
educational systems to international educational institutions. The risk in doing
so depends on the country's preparedness to the GATS regardless of whether it
is a member of it or not. If it is, then the country will have no clear strict
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regulation to deal with foreign providers. And with the help of advanced
technology, higher educational services are no longer provided within national
boarders anymore. Therefore, Arab countries should be ready to face the
challenges and danger brought to them by the GATS.
However, the impact of GATS on education is substantial and without limits.
The demand for higher education is steadily growing and challenging the state’s
capacity to provide it for all its subjects. This inability to provide it for all the
nation opens the education market for foreign providers to offer it, which will
result in lower educational standards and weak outcomes as education becomes
increasingly concerned with turning a profit. What the markets is concerned
about is their financial gains rather than the gains of society or people as Rui
Yang asserts:
‘The current globalization of higher education is
essentially motivated by profits rather than by either
government policy or goodwill. Its goals are to meet
market demand and to create a market niche for a
variety of educational products.’ (283)
Moreover, there is the danger of new economic-ideological colonialism as
Sklair explains:
‘The triumph of the global capitalism is the triumph of the
transnational capitalist classes in selling the culture-ideology
of consumerism, and delivering goods and services through
transnational corporations and other economic institutions.’ (281)
This triumph, which Sklair is preaching against, will dominate social and
political outcomes. Hence, global education brings with it potential imperialist
attitudes, the disappearance of native cultures and implanting western values
instead, as Rui Yang demonstrates:
‘It [global education] is seen as the new colonizer,
insensitively spreading its providers' views of the
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world on to developing nations in the mistaken belief
that they are actually helping people.’ (282)
Hence, global education will help in spreading different ideologies. These
ideologies are foreign to Arab states and bring with them confusion in the civil
societies, for they contradict the social construction of these societies.
Moreover, the globalization brought to Arab countries by GATS will employ
economic standards as parameters. There will be an emphasis on the practical
and technical values of higher education. And universities’ achievements will
be simplified to applied research outputs.
So what counts are the numbers of either publications, graduates, or research
grants while educational values are marginalized. This marginalinazation will
lead to tensions between more profitable applied subjects of science and
technology and humanities subjects and arts.
That is not all. There are other problems brought by GATS such as the
foreign providers, different modes of delivery, cross-boarder education, and
new levels of student mobility and huge opportunities for trade in higher
education. All of the above-mentioned will lead to further confusion of
recognition of qualifications and transformation of academic credit. The
concern is not only the accreditation and qualifications of the educational
institutions, but there is also the problem which manifests itself from within the
countries themselves. Developing countries in general, and the Arab world
more specifically, suffer from the ‘brain drain’ phenomenon. This immediate
risk is made easy with GATS’ facilitation of the movement of professors to
meet the need for skillful teachers, as J. Knight points out:
‘Since many teachers and researchers want to move to
countries with more favorable working conditions and
salaries, there is real concern that the most-developing
countries will benefit from this mobility of education
workers.’
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Normally, developing countries train their graduates in more developed
countries in hope of having skilled scientists and professionals. But with the
lack of advanced technology and opportunities in the native country, the ‘brain
drain’ reverses the expectation of universities for a better future through skilled
people. Consequently, there will be a lack of management, teaching and
research personnel, as David Bloom remarks:
‘Students who are skilled in the development and
acquisition of knowledge are tempting targets
. . . . For developing countries, this has led to concerns
over brain drain, where students whose education has
been paid for by a developing-world government take
the skills they have acquire abroad, and thereafter
contribute little but remittances to their home country.’
Moreover, highly trained people can be attracted and with the existence of
GATS they can be bought more easily now with the ease of mobility. J. Knight
emphasizes the role of GATS in this catastrophe, particularly in developing
countries, is:
‘[to] encourage greater mobility of professions.
. . . . The implications from increased mobility of
teachers and researchers are particularly relevant to
developing countries. It will be a major challenge to
improve education systems if well-qualified professionals
and graduates are being attracted to positions in other
countries.’ (6)
However, the greatest concern for education and training is the Arab world’s
inability to provide the technology required to enlarge the scope of higher
education among its societies. This inability means that Arab countries would
be isolated from global knowledge, information, and technology.
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Fortunately, there has been lately an Arabic tendency to adopt the electronic
delivery of education, but the net can either enhance communities by enabling a
new kind of local public space, or it can undermine communities by pulling
people away from local enclaves towards global, virtual ones. (Doheny-Farina,
54)
Moreover, e-learning is one of the educational solutions, but there are many
obstacles that encompass technological capacity and literacy, culture, language,
and learning style. Virtual universities will serve and widen opportunities for
some, but not to those with low incomes. So, virtual space does not promise
much universality or equality. Therefore, technology is mainly economic and
targets those with high income and GATS opens the door wide open for virtual
university which aims at profiting.
One more problem which will face the Arab educational systems is language.
The majority of global education is written in English and prepared for the
global market. The lack of fluency in English creates a linguistic problem as
most traditional universities in the region teach education, arts, social sciences
and humanitarian departments in Arabic with special classes in English
language. Most students are weak linguistically and that is due to the fact that
students at primary public schools are not taught English as a second language.
Lately, Saudi Arabia introduced English classes in the sixth level as a major
curriculum but that is not enough to give students a strong rooted skill in the
language. This weakness in English language will have an effect on higher
education students and will be intensified with the global education demand for
linguistic fluency.
English language is one of the problems which face the Saudi Arabian
educational system in the global age but not the only one. Because the K.S.A
has signed the GATS agreement and became the 149th member of the
organization in 2005, means that the country should be prepared for the global
challenges. Though Saudi Arabia does not have a problem of population
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density, it does have the problem of vast distance among its cities and villages.
These distances affect higher education greatly, especially in remote places.
There are 19 public universities that spread across the country and other training
and vocational institutions. Recently, the private sector shows an interest in
higher education, there are now three private universities and 17 colleges. In
addition there are 100 colleges in the process of receiving their licenses for next
year and another university starting the licensing process.
The increase in licensing universities and colleges is not arbitrary, and they
are not to be in one region. The need and demand for educational quality is
what controls and motivates this educational expansion. One does not forget
what Nelson Mandela said about the importance of education ‘education is the
most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ And Saudi
Arabia is keen to use this weapon for the advantages of its people, to open new
opportunities for the young Saudis to meet the demand of the nation's growing
economy.
However, all of these establishments are not enough to enroll all the graduates
from elementary schools. The shortage of enrolment is due to many reasons:
the demand for adult education, the difficult terrain to reach the educational
institution in some areas, and the circumstances of female students. Saudi
society is a very conservative one and it is very difficult for a woman to be on
her own in a strange city if she wants to continue her education. In order to
meet the increasing demand for higher education, the Ministry of Education and
the Ministry of Higher Education thought of a solution which suits the society
and can benefit from the technological infrastructure they already have. So the
idea of ‘distance and e-learning project’ emerged.
The project has been studied for eight years and these studies led to the
adoption of the D-L programme by colleges’ previous presidency (now it is part
of the Ministry of Higher Education), E-L is also adopted by Ministry of Higher
Education and it is to serve all parts of Saudi Arabia. The Ministry of Higher
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Education founded the ‘National Center of E-Learning’ to be the establishment
responsible for implanting and enlarging the scope of education. According to
the Ministry’s report for the years 2003-2007 the center is to serve 35% of girls
colleges all over the Kingdom using the ‘Jessor’ project. It will be sustained by
another one called ‘Turjman’ which aims at overcoming the language barrier by
translating the foreign sites to Arabic in order to help students benefit from the
information in these sites. The report also points out that there is a tendency to
limit the foundation of new colleges and universities' departments to those that
are in demand in labor market. This inclination has been applied in 5 public
universities and two private universities and 17 colleges.
The distance learning is one of the solutions that the kingdom has chosen to
provide education for her people. Girls' higher education in Saudi Arabia faces
many problems which make this kind of education the most suitable delivering
mode. Universities and colleges suffer from shortage of teaching professoriate
in different majors especially new ones, the increase in MA and PhD
programmes, and the conservative nature of the Saudi female student which
makes it difficult for her to move away from her family to join MA or PhD
programme.
Distance learning makes use of the existing infrastructure in girls' colleges,
such as classrooms that are equipped with data show, computers' laboratories,
multi media centers, and the ability to show information and data through
different kinds of inputs like computers, videos and other kinds of equipment.
The broadcasting technology that has been used is VSAT. The programme has
been enabled to serve 300 MA students in 36 colleges since last year.
E-learning is another mode of education that Saudi Ministry of Higher
Education is keen in applying. The Ministry signed a contract with the Meteor
Malaysian Company to deliver this kind of education. A total of 130 academics
have been trained on the e-learning skills and construction of an electronic
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curriculum and the programme aims to train 1550 members of the academic
faculty soon.
The Ministry of Higher Education adopts these projects for many reasons:
1- To extend the geographical reach of courses.
2-To ensure higher success and retention rates among students once enrolled.
3-To maximize the use of existing physical and human resources.
4-To enable teachers to handle more students without significantly increasing
their working load.
5-To improve the quality of the student learning experience.
6-To enhance and deepen the nature of the tutor's job through variation, and
more creative approaches to assessment.
7-To encourage the development of computer-assisted teaching and learning.
8-To promote an awareness of the potential of information technology among
students.
The above is the case in public sector; however, the private sector is working
in enlarging and providing a qualified higher education. Alyamamah College is
an example here. This college represents the modern developing institution and
it is one of the recent colleges, it opens its door to registration in September
2004. As I mentioned before, one of the problems which the Saudi educational
system suffers from is the English language. Students do not have enough
English curriculums though this problem is focused on in the last five years and
the English programme is required now in public primary schools. But the
students who are now in colleges or universities are not usually qualified
linguistically. To come over this problem and also to prepare the students for
labor market which demands knowledge of technology and English language,
the college enters into a partnership with ‘linter link’ language centers in the
United States. This partnership provides the college with the highest quality
curriculums, services and experts. This is one way to benefit from globalization
without damaging the national education as the partnership is supervised by the
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Ministry of Higher Education. It also supplies students with the best native
speakers who are qualified in their own language especially the female students
who still do not have the same chance as male students in accepting
scholarships, due to social barriers and tradition of some regions. This college
signed an academic cooperation agreement with two universities: North
Carolina and Falbrisu Universities in the U.S.A. in order to implement:
1- A twinning programme where students can benefit from this partnership in
compelling there studies in either institution
2- Facilitating the graduate students to enroll in higher studies at these
universities.
3- Exchanging of academic and scientific expertise among the partners.
4- Providing opportunities for all participants to develop jointly professional
seminars, symposia and conferences.
5- Sharing curricula, annual reports, and periodicals.
Also K.F.P has taken advanced steps in cooperating with foreign universities for
training and consultation. Also K.A.U started business-ship with Virginia
University to train professors on handling e-learning. There were 60 trainees
who form the cone for the E-L programme at K.A.U. Applying this kind of
learning at the university will serve many students all over the kingdom,
especially in certain specialties which are not to be found except at that
university or at universities which apply face to face traditional teaching where
attendance is required.
Hence, Saudi Arabia is taking steady steps to eliminate the global effects on
education. Both public and private sectors are aware of their educational
responsibility but there are other things that the Ministry of Education should
pay attention to: A comprehensive strategy must be developing to link the
educational system and the training system with the requirements of the labor
market. Also it must focus on standards to improve the educational
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performance at all levels. Moreover, the private sector should be encouraged to
participate in the higher education field.
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