Al-Eqtisadiya daily recently carried a report about the number of Saudi faculty members at public universities and the number of places available for male and female Saudi students who wish to enroll in college this year. The figures mentioned in the report reveal a number of interesting facts. First, we are light years away from Saudizing the positions of faculty members at our universities. The percentage of expatriate faculty members has reached 30 percent and their number 15,977 out of 52,617 staff members. The Ministry of Education is cooperating with the public and private sector and has designed a program that guarantees a job for each student who is sent abroad on a scholarship to study. When the student returns, he or she will find work and will not have to search for a job. This is a good step in the right direction. The ministry should Saudize the academic positions at our universities and work with the ministries of finance and civil service toward achieving this goal. Only expatriates who have scientific degrees from renowned universities should be hired because they will benefit our students. Secondly, the report stated that female faculty members constituted 42 percent of the academic staff at the Kingdom's universities. There are 22,201female faculty members of whom 4,555 are non-Saudi. Furthermore, the ministry has assigned 153,697 seats for female students in all universities and 152,836 seats for male students, with a difference of 861 seats between the two. This shows that Saudi women are taking the lion's share in several fields and outpacing men in others. This means that women should stop complaining that they are not getting their rights in full and that they are being marginalized. It also means that men should start thinking seriously about forming a group to protect their own rights!
