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2015, due to the demand for higher education in this period. Students studying in
private higher education colleges and universities were also financially supported
through soft loans and generous scholarships. The history of non-profit private
higher education in Saudi Arabia goes back to 1967, when a second university,
namely, King Abdulaziz University, was founded as a private university. A few
years later, it was taken over by the state upon a request from its private founders. In
her PhD thesis, Jamjoom ( 2012 ) gave a full account of most of the factors, which
motivated the emergence of private higher education in the 15 years up until 2012.
She explored the perceptions of private higher education among various stakehold-
ers, in comparison to their counterparts in public higher education. There are many
reasonable private higher education colleges and universities, but the Ministry of
Higher Education has had to close some weak institutions and transfer their students
to public universities. Jamjoom also presented other challenges and opportunities
for private higher education in Saudi Arabia (Jamjoom 2012 ).
In an earlier PhD thesis, Alqasimi ( 2005 ) reviewed private higher education in
GCC countries. She concluded that private higher education has a greater share of
the higher education market in these countries. In fact, it is notable that in 2014
about 5% of Saudi higher education students are in private institutions. Furthermore,
due to a decrease in oil revenues it is expected that the Saudi government might fol-
low a more stringent policy for funding students and institutions in private higher
education. Such a move might force many private colleges and universities to
change the way they operate, especially the for-profit ones.
Most Saudi universities face problems in training and in the professional devel-
opment of teaching staff, as well as in recruiting excellent, expatriate academics and
researchers. There are different pay scales and incentive packages for Saudi and
non-Saudi staff. There is fierce competition to recruit excellent academics due to the
expansion of higher education in Saudi Arabia and other GCC states. It is believed
that endowments in some universities and private funding through research chairs
might make things relatively easier for university management.
It was mentioned earlier that, at present, there are more than 160 000 Saudi stu-
dents studying in different parts of the world. These students are living in different
environments. Some of these students are getting on fine with their cultural and
academic lives, although it is expected that many, especially female students, might
experience problems with acculturation. By acculturation, we mean adjusting prop-
erly to a foreign culture with no problems or few troubles that interfere with their
studies. For instance, Abouammoh ( 2012 ) investigated the problems of accultura-
tion facing Saudi KASP students in Britain using quality analysis and indicated that
because there is a large group of Saudi students studying in Britain there is a need
for this study model in other parts of the world. It was pointed out that improper
acculturation might, in some situations, force students to terminate their courses or
it may have a negative impact on students’ performance (Al-Sheikhly 2012 and
Abouammoh and Smith 2013 ).
Heyn ( 2013 ) conducted another interesting, qualitative study on male Saudi stu-
dents studying at Western Michigan University. The study looks at the many chal-
lenges facing Saudi students and their experiences in dealing with them.
A.M. Abouammoh