Saudi Arabia: Internationalizing Research in Saudi Arabia: Purchasing Questionable Privilege

Abstract

As part of its ambition to create a “knowledge economy” and ultimately diversify revenue sources, Saudi Arabia has been working aggressively to boost research production. The Kingdom is young and its university and higher education system even more so. Focusing initially on building schools and later tertiary teaching facilities, it was not able to establish scholarly research production until very recently. However, research activity has been given a massive push over the past few years. The country has made great strides in this regard with the building of many higher education institutions and research facilities.