During the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Higher Education fair in Riyadh, Arab News (the largest English language newspaper in the Middle East) had a number of articles on the topic of education. I thought this one would be interesting to share as I’ve had this same discussion with many university admissions officers: Does the Saudi education system prepare students sufficiently to study overseas?
I doubt I’ll hear many international admissions people argue against this, but I am interested to hear your comments. Personally I feel that the standard way of learning in all of the Middle East (rote memorization, regurgitation, and no discussion) leads to the lack of cognitive thinking that is the basis for US-style education especially at the University level. Combine that with the language issue and you have a student that’s primed to fail.
Read the Arab News article here: http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/education_supplement/article366841.ece
See you at NAFSA (Booth #750) 
- Wassan
