Education was allocated SR192 billion in 2016, a decline of 12 percent over 2015

Interview with Dr.Mahmoud OmarBa-Essa, Vice Rector University of Business & Technology

The authorities and they were inclined to liberalise the education sector and make more space for privatization of investment in the education sector. What are the latest developments with regards to more involvement of private sector in the education sector in Saudi Arabia?

The latest is an exhibition that was held in Riyadh last week under the title of Investment and Education. Almost all the private schools and universities were invited by the ministry of higher education to participate in that exhibition. UBT, our university, did participate in that exhibition and we were invited by the minister himself. It seems that there is a lot of attention being paid to private investment in education. I believe there is now a strong tendency towards the privatization of education.

The government has reaffirmed its commitment to support the economy by budgeting for a SR326 billion deficit in nominal terms, based on revenues of SR514 billion and expenditures of SR840 billion. Despite the global environment of lower oil prices, the Kingdom has maintained a high level of spending in the 2016 fiscal budget. Education and healthcare remain the focus of government spending, accounting for 35 percent of total spending. Education and Training, the second largest budget item, was allocated SR192 billion in 2016, representing a decline of 12 percent year-on-year from SR217 billion in 2015.

Yes it has always been like that. Education and health have always been the focus of the government regardless of the oil price. These are two major sectors that the government are giving so much attention and money to. This indicates that when it comes to education and health the government is determined not to touch those sectors no matter what and keep it as it is.

In your opinion, what should be the major priorities for the government with regards to the higher education sector and the involvement of the private sector in this?

The trend now is to have more involvement from the private sector in the education sector. Results indicate that private institutions and universities and private schools have better results in terms of qualifying exams. The tendency now is to put more weight on private education by private institutions. There is still always control by the government and the minister of education and the standards of private education are being tightened and carefully monitored by the ministry of education.

Should there be more private universities set up or should the government liberalise some of the existing universities? What should the specific programs be?

They are going to allow more private universities to be built and we already know of a few universities that are being licensed and I believe that soon they will be in the market. As far as public universities being privatized now, I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. Government universities will remain the same but there will be many more private universities licenced and given permission to start educating.

We have interviewed some of the investment firms who are now setting up funds that invest in education in kindergartens and more. Even the financial sector has shown interest in getting involved with the education sector.

Yes we have seen that.

Now what are your plans as a university for 2016-2017?

We have two major plans. The first is to have two new colleges and we are undergoing the process right now of creating a college of law and a college of medicine. The second major project is to build a new campus for the female section. It is going to be a beautiful campus with new buildings and close to the Corniche in Jeddah. These are two of the projects that we are planning for 2016.

Can you tell us more about your engineering college? How special is it and how does your program differ from other programs within the kingdom?

Our college of engineering is really one of the best private colleges of engineering in the kingdom. It’s been attracting students and we have nearly over two-thousand students at that college right now. Basically because we have high standards and our method of teaching is more practical than theoretical we are sending our students to foreign universities for training. We sent students to America for summer training last year this year we will do the same.

The programs that are being introduced in the college of engineering are highly attractive. We are introducing two more majors into the college, the first being mechanical engineering and the second is urban planning engineering. We are associated with the University of Connecticut in America and they are in association with us regarding the designing of programs for us and making our programs of an international standard. I believe our college of engineering is one of the best in the nation.

What do you think the future demands for degrees will be? Is an engineering degree going to be  popular in the next five to ten years or will people tend to go for business and market degrees?

I believe engineering will be the leading degree.

What makes you say that?

Because we can see the demand right now and we see more students going towards engineering. When you go to a private university, students go where the market is.. They see that the market is demanding engineering so that is what they go for. We see many students now going towards engineering and engineering is just so attractive to our graduates.

It seems that by looking at history there was a high demand for public relations degrees but now they are overwhelming the market. Engineering and science degrees are now in high demand but what happens if the market switches in five or ten years? Do you think that possible for Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia is still far from that point. The country will need engineers for many years to come. I cannot specify how many years but I think it will be at least a decade before we have sufficient engineers.

We still need many engineers in Saudi Arabia.

Is that because of the infrastructure projects?

Yes. It is due to the infrastructure projects as well as the market being full of engineers from abroad and so there are high paid salaries for engineers. All these things combine to make engineering very attractive.

Can you tell us more about your connection to the University of Connecticut as well as your exchange of students and theoretical technology?

We started with them as our academy consultants first. That means they look at our curriculum and programs and then advise us on what developments we should make for these programs. We already have a plan in conjunction with them to evolve our curriculum and programs further. They have advised us to have one more program, which was mechanical engineering and we are introducing that program next year as soon as we receive permission from the minister of education. In terms of students exchange it is a basic concept and we have always sent students to other universities for summer training.

Tell us more regarding the mechanical engineering program.

Mechanical engineering is one of the areas that we have a big demand for in Saudi Arabia. It is mainly factories and car manufacturers that require mechanical engineers and when we realised the demand we decided to introduce the new program.

What are your accreditations and what do you want to accomplish?

The college of business including all its programs is fully accredited by the NCAAA. The NCAAA is the national accreditation body in Saudi Arabia. We are almost halfway to being accredited by EFMD. They are the accreditation body of Europe. We are also seeking accreditation for the college of engineering and we have started our application process. We are maybe two years away from being accredited by an international body. Now as far as the accreditation by the local accreditation body the NCAAA, we are already in the process of what we call institutional accreditation for the college of engineering.

Are there any other degrees or programs that are important to you that you would like to tell us about?

We did a market study for law majors and we have found that there is a need for lawyers in Saudi Arabia. So now we are in the process of designing the curriculum and we plan to open a law college. However I think this will take perhaps two more years to come to fruition and to be licenced by the minister of higher education.

What are the three major challenges that you are facing?

The first major challenge is to have two professors from other countries. This is something we are really aiming for right now. The second is to have top students from Saudi schools and even foreign schools. The third challenge is to be internationally accredited by the EFMD and other international organizations. 

What is your vision for the university?

The university is growing so fast and at some point we will have to limit the amount of students we accept. We do not want to be a big university. We are seeking quality rather than quantity. We are not looking for a huge numbers of students and right now we have about five thousand students, male and female. We will not rush to accept more students; rather we will have good quality education and graduates as well as good quality students coming in. I hope that is what we will be doing that in the future.