Arab Educational Information Network

This study aims at suggesting some possible alternatives for funding the higher education in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia based on the experience of other developed countries (Japan, Germany, The United States of America) in order to get the best benefit from these experiences. Thus, we can cover the needs of the higher education institutions, follow the progressive development in education, and extend the fund of higher education in Saudi Arabia which expends lots for the higher education. The researcher has used the analytic descriptive methodology in achieving the study objectives. The study has found that the main source of funding for the higher education in Saudi Arabia are the government, loans and personal fund, local institutions and some external resources. The research has suggested some alternatives for funding the higher education considering the social, religious and cultural elements. Some of these alternatives are developing the human, financial, educational resources. In addition, there must be more interest in technology incubators, increasing researches, studying the needs of labor market, and privatizing higher education. This research recommends emphasizing the importance of comprehensive planning for employing the adequate number of graduates and connectingthem with labor market, granting the financial and administrative powers of universities to invest their resources, reducing the financial burden of the government budget for supporting higher education, allowing the privatization of higher education with a supervision of the government, reducing the expenses of higher education and turning universities into centers of production, investment and development. (Published Abstract)