_School spirit: the university factor

Across Saudi Arabia, there are around 30 public universities and 38 private universities and colleges. As a result of ongoing efforts by the Ministry of Education, universities across the Kingdom have been advancing up the league table of the world’s top universities. In 2022, 14 Saudi universities entered the World University Rankings (QS), compared to only 9 in 2019.

Diminishing appetite for overseas degrees?

Historically, the Ministry of Education in Saudi collaborated with several government entities to offer paid scholarships to thousands of students to complete their tertiary education overseas. This resulted in a high percentage of Saudi students studying abroad in 2013, almost 5% higher than the global average (5.5% of the total student population in Saudi Arabia vs a global average of 0.6%).

Since 2016 however, there has been a notable decline in the number of students qualifying for international scholarships due to tightening qualification criteria and a greater desire by the authorities to boost the appeal and quality of home-grown universities.

Survey 2 reveals that of those interested in higher education, the popularity is split equally between private and public universities in the Kingdom (44% each), with just 12% setting their sights on studying abroad.

Mirroring our findings for primary education, respondents' salaries influence preferences for university; 57% of those earning over SAR 20,000 prefer private universities, compared to 38% of those earning below SAR 20,000.

The top reason to travel abroad is the perception of a better ‘quality of education’ (44%), followed by cost savings (20%), with scholarships likely making studying in another country cheaper than remaining in the Kingdom.

Interestingly, university ‘brand identity’ (3%) and being ‘good on CV’ (4%) were also cited as reasons to travel abroad to study, further highlighting the perceived gap in the quality and reputation of local universities.