343CHERS in Saudi Higher Education
Notwithstanding the fact that half a century has passed since the establishment of
the first Saudi university and the higher education system has experienced quantita-
tive and geographical expansions along with a reasonable qualitative development,
the research in higher education has started, somewhat late. The establishment of
the Centre for Higher Education Research and Studies, known by CHERS goes to
the year 2000. CHERS has created awareness and emphasises the importance of
higher education research as a discipline in higher education. CHERS has aimed
since its beginning to form an academic platform for discussion of various issues,
challenges and problems facing achieving objectives or development of Saudi
higher education. The major roles of CHERS are:
- Building excellent research environment to study higher education issues
- Provide policy initiatives and analysis for Saudi higher education
- Enhance the capacity of Ministry of Higher Education, at present Ministry of
Education, in research - Participate in improving and developing the international competitiveness of
Saudi higher education - To be a think-tank in studying higher education challenges
- To provide reliable source for information on higher education trends and
developments - Building partnership and collaboration with other similar international research
institutions
CHERS has adopted various activities to perform research activities through the
following means: - Issuing a “Readings in Higher Education” monthly publication of recent interna-
tional research outputs and initiatives in higher education - Publishing the “Saudi Journal of Higher Education”
- Holding an electronic database for all statistics and research work related to
Saudi higher education - Supporting writing books in various aspects of Saudi higher education
- Translating selected books in higher education in collaboration with UNESCO,
OECDE and CHEPS in the Netherlands - Organizing group discussions, workshops, seminars and conferences
- Supporting research projects on challenges, possible development or policy
assessment of Saudi higher education, carried out mostly by Saudi
academicians
CHERS is fully supported by the Saudi government through the Ministry of
Higher Education in the past 14 years and the Ministry of Education since about 2
years ago. CHERS is not a big unit where it employs consultants, all of them acade-
mician on full time who are on leave from Saudi universities. The number of con-
sultants has varied, in the past, from 4 to 12 according to tasks and availability of
19 The Regeneration Aspects for Higher Education Research in the Kingdom of Saudi...