Saudi King Abdullah’s Foreign Scholarship Program sends thousands to the U.S.

Of the approximately 60,000 Saudis currently studying in the U.S., fewer than 9,000 are self-sponsored. (Toumi, 2018) The remainder receive a full scholarship, including a monthly stipend for living expenses, from the Saudi government. The scholarship program was instituted by King Abdullah and is intended to provide Saudi citizens with top quality education in fields that the Saudi government deems important to its future. However, recent changes to the program have created a more onerous application process and Saudi students are much more restrictive in what schools they can attend and/or what majors they may study. It seems likely that Saudi numbers will continue to decline, and the program is scheduled to expire entirely in 2020. (Walcutt, 2016)

Negotiating for grades is sometimes reported

It has been observed that some Saudi students are more inclined to barter for grades or a favorable outcome to a given situation. A student may go from office to office, seeking an acceptable answer. Alternatively, a student might be up front about bartering for a grade. It has been reported that a JMU student asked his professor how much it would cost for him to receive an A. The professor explained that such an arrangement was not appropriate in the U.S. and, in fact, could cause the student to be brought before the Honor Council. Likewise, a Boise State University employee notes that “For some of you who have interacted with [Saudi] students oftentimes negotiation is accompanied by charm and a little bit of pressure.” (Redden, 2013) This cultural predisposition to negotiation might be seen as threatening and evolve into a student conduct issue. It is important to clearly state expectations and directly answer questions when a student seeks a solution to a problem or is asking for a favor.

Gender roles and norms are restrictive and prescribed

In Saudi Arabia, interactions between non-familial males and females is forbidden by societal and, in some cases, legal rules. Until very recently, women were not permitted to obtain driver’s licenses, and most Saudi women do not work outside the home. Recently, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been loosening rules regarding gender roles in the kingdom, but the reality remains that Saudi men and women will face very different cultural norms as students in the U.S. For example, in Saudi Arabia it is forbidden to shake hands with the opposite gender, school classes are segregated, and all Saudi women are required to have a male guardian - typically a father, brother, uncle or husband.

Education is provided to everyone through secondary school, segregated by sex. There is both general education or traditional Islamic education available to boys, and education for girls. The general curriculum includes Arabic, art education, English, geography, history, home economics (girls only), physical education (boys only) Islamic studies, math and science. In the final two years of secondary education, students must choose between a scientific or literary stream. (Sedgwick, 2001)

There are a limited number of universities in Saudi Arabia, offering a Baccaloreus degree, which generally takes 4 years, with additional time required for certain fields. Master’s and doctorate degrees are also available, but limited. (Sedgewick, 2001) In 2005 King Abdullah created a scholarship program whereby approved Saudi students could go to other parts of the world in pursuit of their post-secondary education.

According to Amani K Hamdan, an Assistant Professor and Vice Dean at the Faculty of Education in the University of Dammam Saudi Arabia, some of the challenges that non-Saudi teachers find when teaching Saudi students are as follows:

• Rote Learning vs. Critical Thinking: Saudi education is focused on rote learning. Truth is deemed absolute, and knowledge is imparted by teachers. One teacher in the study says, “students in Saudi are used to [using] one function of the brain, which is to store information…I feel for my Saudi students who have been taught to memorize for the entire K-12 education.” (Hamdan, 2014)
• Motivation of Saudi students: Some teachers noted that they found it very difficult to motivate their Saudi student. “Unlike the students in the US, Saudi students rarely work…part-time or full-time job[s]. Telling Saudi students that they need to pass the course for a job has little or no effect.” (Hamdan, 2014)
• Student/faculty or staff relationship: In Saudi Arabia, male teachers teach only male students and conversely female teachers teach female students. When a Saudi student comes to the U.S. for education, they must quickly adapt to the fact that they will be taught by both males and females. In addition, the Saudi cultural expectations of the hierarchy between students and teachers will be greatly different than they encounter here. The Saudi student typically expects much more direct instruction from faculty.
• In Saudi Arabia, as in the U.S., the curriculum is more imitative than creative, having adopted from western programs to compete on an international scale, and often do not seem relevant to the Saudi student. In the U.S., of course, most textbooks are written almost exclusively from a western perspective. It may, therefore, take extra work from the professor to find ways of connecting the material in relevant ways with the non-western students in the classroom.

Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Most Unlike U.S.

• Individualism
• Power Distance
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Read more from Hofstede Insights

Implications for the Classroom

Saudi students may be more likely than U.S. students to:

• Work closely with their friends on assignments and share information about exams. In a study of Saudi students, one researcher notes, “What might be called cheating in American is considered cooperation in Saudi Arabia. There is no concept of intellectual ownership in Saudi Arabia, and when writing papers Saudi students sometimes borrow sources and don’t understand the need to distinguish their own voice from others. This kind of textual borrowing and unintentional plagiarism is a result of different academic systems and cultural expectations, as is the Saudi practice of cooperating in learning, which is different than actual cheating with an intent to deceive….” (Al-Romahe, p. 53, 2018)
• Seek information or make appointments as a group or with the use of a spokesperson. It is not uncommon for a group of Saudi students to join together to seek information on a particular topic. Combining the more collectivist society with a high power distance society means that it might be more culturally appropriate for a group of individuals to try to work through a problem together and to designate a particular member of that group (perhaps seen as the most powerful) to seek the information and then bring the knowledge back to the group. The concept of individual confidentiality is not as important as the desire to work through problems as a community.
• Be hesitant to speak up in class. A high power distance society sees teachers as “gurus who transfer personal wisdom.” (Hofstede, p. 107, 2001.) With this type of expectation, it can be seen as disrespectful to offer an opposing opinion or even to ask a question about what a teacher says. In the Al-Romahe study, a “participant…noted that in Saudi culture, students tend to be quiet in class, and making eye contact with teachers is considered inappropriate; however, he feels his teachers at the American university judge him poorly for what is considered a sign of respect in Saudi Arabian classrooms. American teachers value classroom discussion and view students’ participation as a sign of competence, but in Saudi classrooms, students are not expected to participate.” (Al-Romahe, p. 51, 2018)
• Favor structured learning and clear rules. Citizens from a society that avoids uncertainty is more likely to desire clear expectations and rigid rules. This may cause difficulty in a U.S. classroom, where autonomy and critical thinking are of utmost importance. For example, a professor might deliberately provide vague instructions for a research paper, forcing a student to creatively determine the best way to approach the research. For a student who has grown up with strict rules and structures, whose main job in school is to remember and regurgitate information, this type of assignment will be enormously difficult. Add to that issue the fact that the assignment is also in a second language, and the task just increased exponentially.

Al-Qahtani, Abdulkhaleq A. (2016) Acculturation and perceived social distance among Arabs and Saudi Arabians in an ESL situation. English Language Teaching. 9(1).

Al-Romahe. (2018) Saudi International University Students’ Perceptions of their Relationships with American Teachers at a Large Research University. Boise State University dissertation.

Hamdan, A. (2014). The road to culturally relevant pedagogy: Expatriate teachers’ pedagogical practices in the cultural context of Saudi Arabian higher education. McGill Journal of Education. 49(1). 201-226.

Knickmeyer, E. (2012) Saudi Students Flood in as U.S. Reopens Doors, The Wall Street Journal.

Redden, E. (2013) Strategies for Saudi Student Success. Inside Higher Education.

Sedgwick, R. (2001). Education in Saudi Arabia. World Education News & Reviews.

Toumi, H. (2018) About 60,000 Saudi students studying in US. Gulf News.

Walcutt, L. (2016) The Scholarship Struggle Saudi Arabian Students Are Facing. Forbes.