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Riyadh: Saudi experts and academicians have harshly criticised the education curriculum at Saudi universities.
They noted that the curriculum is full of knowledge-related subjects but failed to enrich the students intellectually and culturally.
At a symposium held in Makkah on Tuesday to discuss the situation of universities in Saudi Arabia, the participants lamented the methods of teaching at these universities, describing them as "lacking the concept of dialogue promotion".
In the aftermath of 9/11 attacks, the Western media severely lashed the Saudi education system describing it as "promoting and encouraging extremism and fostering intolerance, ignorance and anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Western views."
Performance
Performance of Saudi universities also came under attack recently by a number of columnists in the local press following the release of a global rating of world universities. The ranking has put Saudi universities at the bottom of the list, a matter that sparked a debate among Saudi academics who called for urgent reform in the education system.
The report titled 'Webometrics Ranking of World Universities' has placed King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia at 1,681 amongst 3,000 universities from all over the world. King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah and the Riyadh-based King Saudi University were ranked 2,785 and 2,910 respectively.
One participant at the Makkah symposium said that the output of Saudi higher education does not cope with the labour market and that graduates are weak in English language, computer applications and lack training in jobs that they would undertake.
However, the rector of Makkah-based Umm Al Qura University has revealed that studies are in progress for establishing a plan to develop higher education in Saudi Arabia. He noted that this plan will not yield positive results unless there is a restructuring strategy for pre-university education and the private sector is involved in higher education.
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