Citizenship for top foreign academics planned

By Marwa Haddad. The Ministry of Higher Education may offer Saudi citizenship as an incentive to attract top foreign scholars and lecturers to the Kingdom's universities, said the ministry's Undersecretary for Educational Affairs Muhammad bin Abdulaziz Al-Ouhali. The offer is one of the incentives the ministry is considering, said Al-Ouhali, who was speaking at the seventh periodic meeting of Saudi universities' undersecretaries for educational affairs at Taif University.
Under the proposal, foreigners will also get allowances for their children, he added. He said it was an international academic tradition to have diverse expertise that can improve services. Lawyer and King Abdul Aziz University professor Omar Al-Khuli said universities have a "clear shortage" of faculty members and need to recruit professors from abroad, but these people have to be outstanding and highly qualified. Al-Khuli suggested raising the retirement age from 60 to 65 to help meet the need for academics. Read more...