The Study Of Women’s Higher Education In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam,with the “Koran” as the country’s fundamental law.After the founding of the country,the economic prosperity which was brought about by the oil industry and the rise of international status has make Saudi Arabia become the worldwide focus.The issue of female education has become the focus of debate in the Islamic world,female higher education under the gender isolation system has also drawn general attention of the international community.In 1968,the Saudi women began to study as formal students at the University of Saudi Arabia,it’s ten years later compared with male higher education.However,the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made great strides in promoting the transformation of female social roles,which is closely related to the governmental development of female higher education.The emergence of female higher education in Saudi is mainly due to the strong economic support given by the government under the vigorous development of the feminist movement and the rapid development of the oil industry.At the same time,the number of female high school and the number of students in Saudi Arabia increase significantly,creating an urgent need for the rise of female higher education.After the1980 s,the Saudi female higher education entered into a period of rapid development,not only the number of colleges and the number of female college students began to grow rapidly,but also the professional setting of female higher education and the distribution of degree were becoming more and more perfect.With the increase in the supply of higher education,many Saudi women gradually get rid of the conservativeness and occlusion and actively participate in social activities,some industries which used to be not open to women have been made up,such as medicine,law,engineering,media and so on.However,the development of Saudi female higher education strictly follows the gender isolation system,separate departments and dormitories are established for women and there are strict restrictions on the use of female libraries,laboratories and other public facilities,as well as male leaders are not allowed to enter the female universities and colleges to inspect work.At the sametime,the female universities and colleges in Saudi Arabia are unevenly distributed throughout the country,and the curriculum attaches more importance to arts than science.In addition,the limitations of various traditional concepts and work have made it difficult for Saudi women to fulfill their social benefits which are in sharp contrast to a high social cost paid by the country.Moreover,although the Saudi female higher education gradually moves towards the direction of secularization,it still shows a more obvious conservativeness and religious courses occupy a certain proportion.The reasons why Saudi female higher education has such isolation,imbalance and conservatism are mainly due to the laggard of the social concept of Saudi Arabia,the strong sense of conservatism,the serious lack of female teachers in colleges and universities and many restrictions on the field of employment,which becomes the fundamental restrictions of limiting the development of Saudi female higher education.