THE AMERICAN INFLUENCE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNIVERSITIES IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABI

The purpose of this study was to trace the development of the state education system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with emphasis on the universities. The adoption by the Saudis of the American credit-hour/elective system was of special concern as well as the role of the American oil workers in effecting social change.;Although social change in the basic structure of tribal society and its economic foundation was a specific intent of the founder of the country who wanted to achieve the unification of the region into the modern nation state of Saudi Arabia, the discovery of oil by Americans in 1938 precipitated a transformation of greater magnitude. A key element among the background influences effecting the accelerated social change was the American oil workers who came to the country as a result of a concession agreement allowing for the exploration and exploitation of oil. The immense oil reserves provided the country with a soaring oil income that propelled Saudi Arabia into a position of power in the world. The oil wealth made it possible to plan the development of six universities in a country where none had previously existed.;With the expanding educational system designed to overcome massive illiteracy and to combine the country's rich Islamic heritage with carefully selected achievements of the industrial western world, Saudi students were sent abroad to obtain university education unavailable at home. Due to the activity generated by the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), increasing numbers of students entered higher education in the United States under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian Educational Mission Abroad program.;Drawing on Edward T. Hall's theory of high and low context cultures, as well as Peter Berger's analysis of technologicall consciousness, it becomes easier to see the epistemic changes introduced into Saudi Arabian culture, and, more specifically, the system of higher education by the Western technologists who developed the oil industry. In addition, the Saudi students who entered universities and colleges in the United States picked up a perception of reality covertly transmitted by means of the credit-hour/elective system, the roots of which spring from the middle class values grounded in an industrial/technological society.;Hall's theory makes it possible for us to see how the Saudis have incorporated into their high context culture a university system founded along the lines of the American system which caters to the needs of a technological consciousness. Furthermore, the process of cultural borrowing by the Saudi students during their sojourn in the United States helped to accelerate the development of a system of higher education that incorporates key themes of the technological consciousness within the evolving university system in Saudi Arabia. The dissertation documents the events that led to important changes in their system of higher education, and explores the implication of combining a technological mode of thought with the traditional values of Saudi culture.