The state of education in Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is undergoing an ambitious educational transformation, driven by Vision 2030's strategic imperative to build a knowledge-based economy.

This reform is happening at every level of education, from early childhood through to higher education, supported by partnerships with universities and businesses both local and international.

We did a deep dive into the research we publish to share insights about what these reforms mean, and what these partnerships entail.

Education at the heart of Vision 2030

"Vision 2030 ... is comprehensive in all aspects," and in light of this, "the Kingdom is well on its way to transforming from an oil-based economy to a knowledge-based economy,” say Muhammad Babar Khan and Sadia Iqbal in their chapter “Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program” from the book “Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia: Vision 2030,” edited by Muhammad Khurram Khan and Muhammad Babar Khan.

Muhammad Babar Khan and Sadia Iqbal explain: “Vision 2030 is a roadmap to the Kingdom’s economic development vision. Under its umbrella are three key pillars, which are the building blocks to a sound economy the Kingdom can use to move towards a knowledge-based economic transformation."

They continue: "This vision is based on three themes: a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation."

1. A vibrant society "revolves around three core objectives: a vibrant society with strong roots, a vibrant society with fulfilling lives and, last, a vibrant society with strong foundations."

2. A thriving economy "focuses on human capital development and state-of-the-art education for all in accordance with the market needs. This will mean economic opportunities for entrepreneurs and large, small and medium-sized enterprises. Additionally, this would open new doors for employment opportunities, unlocking the economic sectors and making way for economic diversification."

3. "The ambitious nation theme is the third vital theme which rests on a proficient and high-performing government pillar. In order to see KSA as an ambitious nation, it is essential that the Kingdom make sure that the private sector, citizens and the non-profit sector take ownership of their responsibilities. To do so, the Kingdom should provide them with the right environment and enable them to take a step towards meeting challenges and seizing opportunities."

Girls with backpacks walking after school in the street of historic Al-Balad, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Passage to a knowledge based economy

A thriving economy that provides opportunities for all entails a transformation of that economy into a knowledge-based one; a knowledge-based economy is built on education. In “The Past, Present, and Future of Higher Education in the Arabian Gulf Region: Critical Comparative Perspectives in a Neoliberal Era,” edited by Awad Ibrahim and Osman Z. Barnawi, Abdullah Alshakhi gives an overview of the achievements of Saudi Arabian education in the late 20th and early 21st century in his chapter “Seven Decades of Higher Education in Saudi Arabia."

Alshakhi describes what the transformation to a knowledge-based economy entails: “There is consensus among policymakers in the Gulf region that the passage to a knowledge economy is critical and has to be accomplished through availing its citizens of the kind of education that is based on its intellectual capital or intangible assets and on its ability to capitalize on scientific discoveries and applied research. To make this ambitious vision a reality, the Gulf countries have adopted drastic and wide-ranging reforms that encompass a number of initiatives that have touched every sphere of higher education.”

Saudi universities as change agents for a sustainable society

While reforms are touching "every sphere of higher education," likewise, higher education in KSA, and those individuals involved in it, are transferring the wealth of knowledge and innovation back into society for good. Alshakhi declares that: “higher education institutions throughout the world have the potential to act as change agents for the sustainability of a society."

Alshakhi describes the current landscape of higher education in KSA: "In the last seven decades, Saudi Arabia has experienced an educational boom where the student population has soared from 7,000 to 4.11 million, which is why the Saudi government has been dedicating over a quarter of its budget (26%) to education.”

Now with this funding, fewer Saudi students study abroad, as Alshakhi explains: "Many disciplines that had been unavailable in Saudi higher education are now available in nearly all universities established in major cities of the kingdom."

Due to this commitment by the government, the growth of higher education has happened incredibly fast. In 2005 there were seven public universities; now the Ministry of Education website lists twenty-nine public universities, and thirty-eight private universities and colleges, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. KSA took all of the top three spots in last year’s Times Higher Education Arab University Rankings.

Impacting the discourse of an entire generation of Saudis

Sharing his own story as having been born and raised in KSA, Alshakhi relates how he benefited from government sponsored educational initiatives in his youth: "In 2005, King Abdullah (2005–2015) started a scholarship program that gave students in Saudi higher education the opportunity to study abroad. As a huge investment in Saudi youth, the scholarship program opened the country to other cultures and embraced understanding different religions and traditions."

Alshakhi believes that such programs created a ripple effect which has had positive political and economic consequences: "after studying abroad, the students return home to the kingdom with a global perspective, just as I did after I completed my studies in the USA. Hence, this one strand introduced into KSA's education is now impacting the discourses of an entire generation of Saudis. This broadened viewpoint has not only allowed KSA to keep up with the modern world, but it has also benefited other cultures, as Saudi Arabia has become an important global partner, such as by being a member of the Global 20 (G20)."

He continues: "The KSA will most certainly continue to witness rapid changes in years to come which will reflect on the country’s aspiration to be part of the modern and globalized world. While the country’s initial wealth came about through the discovery of oil in 1938, it has been the kingdom’s wise investment in education and especially higher education over the last 70 years that has allowed the country to meet the challenges of modernization, rise to become a member of the international community, and establish the global partnerships that will secure its future. While still a religious and conservative society, the Saudi people have carefully woven the strands of new discourses into the fabric of a traditional culture that will continue to provide long-term prosperity for the country."

Changes in the status quo

In Badry and Willoughby's "Higher Education Revolutions in the Gulf: Globalization and Institutional Viability ” the authors share a similar sentiment: “The emergence and growth of universities has led to significant changes in the status quo, including tangible and meaningful improvements to the accessibility and quality of Saudi higher education."

The authors point out some of the economic benefits provided for students in KSA: "The Saudi Arabian government provides significant support to post-secondary students. Those who attend public universities pay no tuition and receive a monthly allowance. More than 48% of students in private universities are funded by the government's 'internal' scholarships."

They continue: "The Saudi government invests US$22 billion a year in university students, allowances, and scholarships. Latest statistics indicate that 1,058,155 male and female students, enrolled in 28 public universities, each cost the government US$19,000 a year."

According to the Vision 2030 Annual Report 2024, "three universities (are) ranked among the top 200 globally, according to major international indices including Shanghai, Times Higher Education, and QS." The 2030 target is for five Saudi universities among the top 200 universities in international rankings. The report continues: "performance within the rankings improved significantly: King Saud University was ranked 90th globally in the Shanghai Ranking 2024; and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) advanced from 180th to 101st in the same index."

Global universities and organizations as partners in growth

According to Altmetric, in the past 10 years, between 2015 and 2024, Saudi Arabia has had 428,986 publications, with 46,975 patents, and 7.75 million citations. The top research categories are engineering, biomedical and clinical sciences, chemical sciences, and information and computing sciences. That number is up from 68,754 publications in the 10 years prior, published between 2005 and 2014.

In the past five years alone, Taylor & Francis is proud to have published over 11,800 research papers by Saudi researchers. These impactful papers received more than 1,800 mentions in the media, and were cited in 127 Policy Documents. From a WHO report on vaccine hesitancy, to a World Bank study on the financial impact of noncommunicable diseases, for the first time ever, on a global scale, Saudi research is directly influencing policy documents from some of the largest and most influential organizations in the world.

Collaboration between KSA universities and the public sector

Beyond university training lies the job market, and ensuring success here too has been scrutinized as part of Vision 2030 goals. The Vision 2030 Annual Report 2024 provides positive data on the "Percentage of University Candidates Employed Within 6 Months of Graduation."

The report cites that "the employment rate for university graduates within six months of graduation rose from 13.9% in 2021 to 43% in 2023, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 75%. This exceeded the annual target for 2023. This progress reflects: Reforms under the Human Capability Development Program; the Ministry of Education’s updated scholarship policies, directing students toward high-demand fields; and increased collaboration between universities and the private sector."

In Chapter 4, "Knowledge-based economy in Saudi Arabia and Vision 2030," written by Mohammad Nurunnabi as part of the book "Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia," Nurunnabi shares specifics of Vision 2030 related to vocational training: “We have launched the National Labor Gateway (TAQAT), and we plan to establish sector councils that will precisely determine the skills and knowledge required by each socio-economic sector. We will also expand vocational training in order to drive forward economic development. Our scholarship opportunities will be steered towards prestigious international universities and be awarded in the fields that serve our national priorities. We will also focus on innovation in advanced technologies and entrepreneurship."

In the Preface of their book "Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia: Vision 2030," Muhammad Khurram Khan and Muhammad Babar Khan write: "In order to accomplish Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and to identify the challenges through appropriate mechanisms for follow-up and performance evaluation, the National Transformation Program (NTP) 2020 was launched in 2016 with the goal of giving Saudi Arabia a leading position in all fields and to figure out the general direction, policies, goals and objectives to accomplish the goals for the 2030 vision. To expedite this transformation, the Kingdom is investing more in entrepreneurship education, schools, colleges, universities, globalization, women’s education and empowerment, infrastructure, tourism, renewable energy, enabling the R&D workforce, health services and recreation."

They continue: "Entrepreneurship is considered crucial for the growth of a nation; therefore, countries focus on improving the entrepreneurial capabilities of students to enhance potential spillover to the economy. Students must realize that being an entrepreneur is not as easy as it looks because an entrepreneur is always on the hunt to revolutionize and then respond to a need or gap and try to make the most of it … new initiatives by the Saudi government and private sector organizations by establishing incubators, accelerators, venture funds, and other investment opportunities have attracted local talent to establish their own startups and businesses. The Kingdom has also made it simpler for foreign entrepreneurs to establish their startups with the ease of doing business."

In his chapter, Mohammad Nurunnabi provides key key details on some of the R&D achievements happening in KSA as of 2020: "There are approximately 143 research centers in Saudi Arabia in both the public and private sectors… The government sector or public sector dominated the share of these centers, particularly universities, which combined 89 research centers and 1,167 laboratories."

Unemployment positively impacted by Vision 2030 strides

In the 2023 research paper "Making Saudi vision 2030 a reality through educational transformation at the university level," the authors, Shifan Thaha Abdullateef, Rabab Musa Alsheikh, and Bahia Khalifa Ibrahim Mohammed, hone in on the unique challenges presented by a country that is both in the midst of diversifying its economy and dealing with a growing population that is dominated by people under 30.

They first put the unemployment issue in context, explaining that, indeed, unemployment, or the mismatch between the talent pool and available roles, is a global challenge right now, and not unique to any country. "A study by the World Economic Forum stated that nearly 36% of employers globally reported facing difficulties in finding talent." A more recent ManpowerGroup study says "75% of global employers reported they are struggling to find talent with the skills they need."

They then explain: "For Saudi's Economic Vision 2030 to be realised, Saudi Arabia has to refine its education system. The vision states, ‘we will prepare a modern curriculum focused on rigorous standards in literacy, numeracy, skills, and character development. We will track progress and publish a sophisticated range of education outcomes, showing year-on-year improvements’, the National Transformation Program ('NTP') has instructed some objectives to bring about this reformation of the education system some of them are: ... Improving curricula and teaching methods: The main concern is to establish an alignment between the curricula and the teaching methods to deliver sustainable learning (life-long learning) to enable the graduates to acquire the labour market as well as life skills'."

According to the Vision 2030 Annual Report 2024, unemployment numbers have successfully reached the 2030 target, decreasing from 12% to 7%. The report expounds that this number: "marks a historic low, supported by sustained labor market reforms and targeted job creation initiatives. Unemployment has declined steadily since 2021. The recalibration of the indicator following the 2022 Saudi Census, reflected in the 2024 population census update, helped improve measurement accuracy. A major contributor to this decline is the reduction in female unemployment, which dropped from 34.5% in 2016 to 11.9% in 2024."

The report continues: "In 2024, over 2.4 million job opportunities in the private sector were created for Saudis, supporting broader employment growth and helping maintain momentum toward the 2030 goal."

Experiment, investigate, observe

Muslim businesswoman wearing black. People in the background are blurred, it is an office environment.

In "The Pulse of the Development of Higher Education across the Gulf Countries in the Era of Neoliberalism," the epilogue of the book "The Past, Present, and Future of Higher Education in the Arabian Gulf Region," Habib Bouagada writes: "The trajectory that higher education has crossed in every country of the Gulf region, up until this stage, is a journey laden with success despite the hurdles … The efforts deployed and the resources invested in attempting to project higher education to the highest levels of advancement are certainly laudable and may yield promising outcomes in the hands of the future competitive workforce that is being trained in the various 'laboratories' across the universities of the Gulf."

The word laboratory is indeed a clever way to describe the vast amount of innovation that KSA has utilized to succeed in its vision for 2030. The definition of a laboratory is: "any place, situation, set of conditions, or the like, conducive to experimentation, investigation, observation," and indeed, that is what KSA has taken upon itself, as a country, to do since 2016 – "experiment, investigate, and observe."

In his article "The success of Saudi Vision 2030: A model for others in the region," Dr. Majid Rafizadeh sums up the past 9 years since the launch of Vision 2030: “In a region where some governments grapple with short-termism, economic instability, and youth disillusionment, Saudi Arabia has emerged as a model of how sustained planning, bold leadership, and visionary goals can reshape the foundations of a society. The Kingdom’s experience over the past nine years highlights a fundamental truth: long-term vision and consistent execution are critical for national success. Vision 2030 has not only changed Saudi Arabia – it has offered a blueprint for what is possible across the Middle East."