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countries, face problems learning the language. KASP students who are graduates
from international high schools or some of the few excellent public high schools in
Saudi Arabia may not need more than a semester of learning English to join univer-
sity. On the other hand, many students may take up to 21 months or more to be able
to acquire sufficient English to pursue their university education. Few might find
that the English language is a very big obstacle to overcome, which may even con-
tinue to be a problem after graduation. This problem has been tackled in many
postgraduate theses and research papers published in international journals.
Learning English in Saudi Arabia or studying it abroad, for about 2 years in some
cases, costs students a lot of time and money. Mahib ur Rahman and Alhaisoni
( 2013 ) pointed out some of the main problems associated with learning English in
Saudi Arabia, such as the proficiency of teachers and the lack of books, exposures,
practice skills and assessment methods (Grami 2010 ). Orth ( 2015 ) recently consid-
ered other issues associated with acculturation and the experiences of Saudi stu-
dents at an Australian university in a PhD thesis. In fact, even the change for Saudi
students from a single gender environment in Saudi Arabia to a mixed gender envi-
ronment abroad, and the issues related to this, can be an interesting field of research
(Alhazmi and Nyland 2015 ).
In recent years some Saudi writers, academicians and intellectuals have pub-
lished articles and books about Saudi education in general and higher education in
particular. All of those books are published in Arabic language. They have given
critical analysis of the development of Saudi higher education in its competitive-
ness, conservatism and identity. Here, we state four of these titles, namely, “Reform
of Saudi Education: Absence of Vision and Policy, Suspicious of Religious Culture
and the Enable Education Administration by Al-Esa ( 2009 )”, Saudi Higher
Education: Search Journey for Identity” by Al-Esa ( 2010 ), “Infiltration of the Ivory
Tower: Reading of Geopolitical Transformation and Ideological Impact on the
Structure and Policy of Saudi Higher Education” and “Higher Education in Saudi
Arabia: Traditionalism with Interest in Technology and Business” by Othman
( 2015 ). In spite of the harsh criticisms, as reflected as well in their titles, to Saudi
higher education system, they have proposed, in addition to some controversial
judgments, many issues of concern that make significant research topics in the
future development of Saudi higher education. Callous self-criticisms of education
systems by nationals of education and academic community are noted in many
countries, including developed ones, in the world. One may note that untraditional
ideas and proposal are mostly controversial, but they bring interest and motivate
further discussion and assessment of education policies. On the contrary, various
characteristics of Saudi higher education have been eulogised by many authors, for
instance, Pavan ( 2013 , 2015 ), Pavan and Alfahadi ( 2014 ), Hilal and Denman ( 2013 ,
2015 ) among many others.
A.M. Abouammoh