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Economy and Development, comprising of ministers and headed by the deputy
crown prince. It seems though that the government has realised that such an arrange-
ment, to have a supreme university governing body, might not be the best way for-
ward, at a time where many decision makers and academics support more autonomy
for universities.
There are many ideas and proposals for more development, with additional
autonomy, transparency and fairness regarding various concerns and participation
of all stakeholders. Academics are enthusiastic about a flexible law that fits all types
and sizes of Saudi universities and encompasses items and policies that support mis-
sion differentiation and room for competition and excellence in every institution.
At present, there aren’t any foreign university campuses in Saudi Arabia. On the
other hand, the General Authority for Technical and Vocational Training has made
agreement with some foreign technical institutions to establish institutes and two-
year colleges. This has happened in the past 3 years, and one cannot, yet, see how
successful this joint multinational, technical and vocational institution, even so,
Saudi Arabia has been considering since long the provision for allowing foreign
higher education. It has participated through the ministry of higher education in
three meetings of OECD and the UNESCO that has come up with a document
entitled “Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education”; see
UNESCO ( 2005 ). In February 2016, the Minister of Education has announced, to
Saudi press, that the government intention is to allow foreign higher education to
operate in Saudi Arabia. It seems the form and the structure of the intended foreign
higher education are not yet decided. It is known that foreign higher education can
be of independent foreign institutions, American University of Cairo, Egypt, and
American University of Beirut, Lebanon. It can be a site allocated for foreign
schools as in the education city as in Qatar or campuses or branches of foreign uni-
versities as in the United Arab Emirates model. Also, foreign education can be the
result of joint or partnerships of national or international programs among institu-
tions; see Abouammoh and Mazi ( 2010 ) and Abouamoh ( 2013 ). Various models of
foreign education in Saudi Arabia are expected to face financial, cultural and gover-
nance challenges under the present transition period of higher education system.
Taking into account the strong funding support of Saudi Arabia to its private, for
profit and non-profit making higher will lead to an excruciating competition in front
of foreign higher education in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 ( 2016 )
indicates explicitly to various policies, strategies and in particular in the national
transformation plan that more liberal trend towards is strongly adopted in privatisa-
tion of many sectors including general and higher education. Also, it was announced
that the government is looking into building an environment through appropriate
regulation that make it possible for foreign higher institution to participate in the
Saudi higher education system.
These and other activities of the vision in the education sector are done through
meeting, educational activities, research and discussion groups of academicians and
education decision and policy makers. This direction has motivated many experts
involved to make various groups of researchers to investigate different aspects of the
forthcoming 2030 vision and 2020 national transformation plan. These groups of
A.M. Abouammoh