The issues impacting on higher education in Saudi Arabia are frequently atypical in nature and are also highly interrelated and individually complex. Further, the information bases from which to draw realistic and useful conclusions with respect to the present and future of higher education in Saudi Arabia are generally extremely limited in both scope and depth, and lack the consistency necessary for valid analysis. As a consequence, the editors of this text presented the Director of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Studies (CHERS) in Riyadh, Dr. Abdulhalem Mazi, with a proposal for an intensive 2-day focus group research project involving all chapter authors (Saudi and international) so that critical issues, challenges and opportunities could be shared and debated and conclusions collaboratively drawn and validated.

For more than a decade, the Saudi government has enacted a series of major policy and funding initiatives designed to position its universities - individually and collectively - on the world academic stage. Many opportunities have been grasped, and just as many barriers have been encountered. Much still needs to be done. In this final chapter, the editors identify five overriding issues that emerged from an holistic analysis they undertook of the information, findings, trends and recommendations provided in the previous 16 chapters: the tension between academic vision and cultural norms; the lack of an appropriate governance model for Saudi universities; developing and sustaining international credibility; maximising opportunities and achievements for women in higher education; and the tension between traditional Saudi approaches to teaching, learning and student assessment and the needs of a global knowledge economy. The chapter concludes by arguing the case for two key priorities capable of leveraging significant and sustainable improvement in the Saudi higher education system in its quest for 'world-class' standards.

The government of Saudi Arabia has recognised, in both policy and practice, the necessity of developing its university system to world-class standard and of significantly increasing access to and participation in higher education across a range of traditional and non-traditional disciplines directly relevant to the future social and economic growth of the country. Saudi Arabia currently supplies 60% of the world's oil and can be expected to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, ways of decreasing dependence on oil for the supply of energy are at the forefront of research and government policy worldwide. Strategies and opportunities for the future economic, social and political development of Saudi Arabia are, therefore, of immense relevance and interest to Saudi businesses, industries, academics and students operating in a rapidly changing and increasingly global business world. This book provides scholarly descriptions and analyses of the major elements of the Saudi higher education system, including its history, aspirations, structure, governance, strategic planning approaches, teaching and learning culture, research productivity, quality assurance processes (including accreditation), progress towards internationalisation, initiatives to improve access for women and the emergence of a private university sector.