335SJHE has recently published its 14th issue which contains papers in both Arabic and
English languages. One of the growing research bodies in the Saudi higher research
community is the Academic Leadership Center (ALC). The ALC has started its
activity in 2008, and it is expanding its activities in discussion of special interest
group, workshop, training courses, seminars and webinars.
Challenges Facing Women in Saudi Higher Education
This separate section is mainly devoted to the various challenges facing female
students in Saudi higher education. The growth in Saudi female higher education is
tremendous compared to the development of male higher education in the kingdom.
The first group of Saudi female students to enrol in higher education goes back to
the 1970s. At present, female students comprise almost 42.5% of students in higher
education and about 58% of university students. Furthermore, despite the modest
ambitions of local women and the occasional external criticism of the structure and
the distribution of female students in disciplines in higher education and of the slow
empowerment process, the number of female graduates and the female voice and
role in all sectors of life is growing. Female students’ issues in higher education are
also covered in the previous sections and in the coming sections as well, since they
are part of other activities in Saudi higher education.
Al-Issa et al. ( 2013 ) investigated, in a report, some policies to enhance higher
education for women in Saudi Arabia. Their proposed policies are intended to over-
come challenges related to the limited available academic programmes for women,
pathetic infrastructures and educational environments. In another report for CHERS,
Abouamoh ( 2013 ) pointed out that GCC states have similar scholarship programmes
for female citizens, but they have different policies and management procedures.
Even so, the GCC programmes are different in their motivation, the obligations they
place on students and in their assessment compared to scholarship programmes in
other developed or developing countries.
It is notable that the female staff ratio in Saudi universities has increased from
33% in 2005/2006 to 40.5% in 2013/2014. In reality, the number of female staff has
surprisingly increased by about 240% during the same period.
AbdulCader and Anthony ( 2014 ) investigated various factors that affect the moti-
vation of universities in Saudi Arabia through surveys, using a sample of different
nationalities, ranks and institutions. They indicated a lack of motivation to partici-
pate in programme development. In spite of the limitation of the sample, the study
included useful and alarming results that can be of help to lawmakers in drafting
new by-laws for Saudi HE.
Profanter ( 2014 ) considered the educational challenges facing women and stated
that the Saudi Arabia of the twenty-first century is almost completely different from
the Saudi Arabia of a century ago. However, the country is conservative and the
female role is limited in almost all aspects of life. For instance, the unemployment
ratio for women is 21.7%, whereas for men it is only 7.6%. Women have tradition-
19 The Regeneration Aspects for Higher Education Research in the Kingdom of Saudi...