Dr. Haya Al-Manea Al-Riyadh An official source at the Ministry of Higher Education reportedly said the ministry was considering a plan to attract prominent university professors from foreign countries to Saudi universities by offering them Saudi citizenship. In principle, I am not against any move that will improve the standards of our universities through employment of qualified foreign personnel. However, I have reservations on offering them citizenship, especially at this particular time. Saudi students sent abroad for higher studies at some of the most prestigious universities around the world under the scholarship program of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah have started coming back armed with postgraduate degrees. I believe such graduates, some of them honors students, should be employed in our universities instead of foreigners. Of course citizens should be adequately compensated so that they not only work in our higher education institutions but remain in their jobs for years to come. Many distinguished Saudi graduates are often offered jobs in countries where they carry out research work. Therefore, attracting non-Saudis with lucrative incentives including citizenship will be unfair to Saudi students, the country and our universities who can only be developed at the hands of Saudis. This does not mean that I am against employing non-Saudis in our universities. I would have been unreservedly enthusiastic of this move if it came before the start of the King's scholarship program but there is a need, now more than ever, to attract our own sons and daughters who have completed their higher education abroad. Many of universities pay large sums of money so foreign professors can come to the Kingdom for a few days and help the university obtain international accreditation. It is obvious that universities do not benefit from such fund-wasting moves. Of course there are positive sides to attracting foreign teachers especially when it comes to scientific endeavors as it enables both staff and students to benefit from their experience and knowledge. Attracting qualified foreigners can be useful to higher education if it is done according to certain rules that will give priority to nationals. We should not focus on Saudization of foreign teachers as a strategic objective. Instead, we should focus on uplifting the standards of our universities by using the men and women we sent abroad. We should offer incentives that will attract them and this means changing the current pay scale, which is not at all attractive. The ministry should itself undertake the task of appointing our highly qualified sons and daughters instead of leaving this task to universities.
