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Establishing a World-Class University in Saudi Arabia: intended and unintended effects

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Abstract

The manifold activities in Southeast Asian countries for establishing World-Class Universities are observed since several years. In contrast, the substantial efforts in Arabian countries are barely noticed. As illustrative example, the King Abdulaziz University has enormously increased the quantity and quality of its research reflected in a growing number of articles and rising citation scores. This development implies a steadily improving position in rankings such as the Shanghai Ranking, but the investment is not unilaterally focussed on research, but education profited as well. The amelioration in science is substantially based on new academic staff from foreign countries experienced in high level research, but the number of nationals, male and female, significantly rose as well. The investment in research and education has to be considered as starting point of a long-term strategy of economic development for coping with the foreseeable end of the oil boom.

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Fig. 1

Source: Web of Science, searches and compilations by the authors

Fig. 2

Source: Web of Science, searches and compilations by the authors

Fig. 3

Source: Web of Science, searches and compilations by the author

Fig. 4

Source: Web of Science, World Patents Index, own compilations

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Notes

  1. See e.g. Douglass (2016).

  2. http://www.globelics.org.

  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita.

  4. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Saudi_Arabia and Alshahrani and Alsadiq (2014).

  5. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html.

  6. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/saudi-arabia/gdp-growth.

  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldtian_model_of_higher_education.

  8. Primarily the Web of Science and Scopus.

  9. Data from http://www.shanghairanking.com/World-University-Rankings/King-Abdulaziz-University.html (update of May 15, 2015).

  10. npj = Nature partner journal.

  11. http://fer-che.kau.edu.sa/Pages-erenewable.aspx, see also Al-Saleh (2009) and Whitley and Makhijan (2014).

  12. The size of Taiwan is comparable to that of Saudi Arabia (Taiwan: Population in 2015 23 million, Saudia Arabia: 31 million inhabitants).

  13. http://www.leidenranking.com/.

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Acknowledgments

Certain data included in this chapter are derived from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), the Social Science Citation Index SSCI), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), the Index to Scientific and Technical Proceedings (ISTP), and the Index to Social Sciences and Humanities Proceedings (ISSHP) (all updated June 2015) prepared by Thomson Reuters (Scientific) Inc.®, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, USA: © Copyright Thomson Reuters Scientific 2015. All rights reserved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, 76139, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Ulrich Schmoch

  2. King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia

    Habib M. Fardoun & Abdulfattah S. Mashat

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  1. Ulrich Schmoch
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Correspondence to Ulrich Schmoch.

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Schmoch, U., Fardoun, H.M. & Mashat, A.S. Establishing a World-Class University in Saudi Arabia: intended and unintended effects. Scientometrics 109, 1191–1207 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2089-9

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