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In addition, the ALC emphasises that one of its services is running research and
studies to quantify good practices and investigate new trends in various higher edu-
cation systems and their proper implementation in the Saudi higher education
set- up. The ALC is the only body of its kind in the Arab world, and its services are
likely to be needed and might be extended to the Cooperation Council for the Arab
States of the Gulf (GCC). These six states, of the GCC, namely, Bahrain, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, have very similar higher
education systems and have other joint regional institutions and centres in
education.
The ALC is expected to be leading higher education community in research in
the field of higher education in Saudi Arabia. In particular, the Saudi system of
higher education, at present, is on the verge of major changes in its governance,
public policies, privatisation, management and funding. These new sets of chal-
lenges and opportunities are attributed to the new Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and
the 2020 National Transformation Plan which introduces new growth approaches
for all development sectors of Saudi Arabia; see Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 ( 2016 ).
Conclusion
This chapter is restricted to the main, very significant challenges facing Saudi higher
education, which make it a very fertile field of research. It is also worth mentioning
that there are other aspects, related to challenges that have been discussed in differ-
ent master and doctoral research projects in Saudi Arabia and in different universi-
ties around the world.
It is worth noting that the higher education system in Saudi Arabia is in the pro-
cess of changing its mission, vision, structure and governance. The merge of both
department of pre-university and higher education was one of the recent aspects.
The introduction of the Saudi Educarion Evaluation Commission (EEC), on 7 May,
2016, headed by a state minister and reports to the prime minister is another aspect
of changes and of the priority of higher education role in the state developments.
The new commission has included the NCAAA, the NCAHE and other evaluation
and assessment sections of the public education in the Kingdom.
The field of Saudi higher education research is considered relatively young, com-
pared to other higher education systems in developed and many developing coun-
tries. The first university in the kingdom, namely, King Saud University in Riyadh,
will reach its 60th anniversary in 2017. The fast growth in the number of universi-
ties, students and staff and the emergence of private higher education and the pio-
neering King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP) have given rise to many
challenges and controversial issues. Furthermore, internationalisation and globali-
sation, quality assurance, visibility on research classification podiums and non-
sustainable funding are putting additional external stress on the higher education
system. The impact of this programme on Saudi society and the gained knowledge
A.M. Abouammoh