Potentialities and priorities for higher educational development in Saudi Arabia for the next decade: Critical reflections of the vision 2030 framework

Khalid Mohiuddin; Osman A Nasr; Mohamed Nadhmi Miladi; Huda Fatima; Samreen Shahwar; Quadri Noorulhasan Naveed

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16368

Potentialities and priorities for higher educational development in Saudi Arabia for the next decade: Critical reflections of the vision 2030 framework

Heliyon. 2023 May 19;9(5):e16368. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16368. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Khalid Mohiuddin¹, Osman A Nasr¹, Mohamed Nadhmi Miladi¹, Huda Fatima², Samreen Shahwar¹, Quadri Noorulhasan Naveed³

Affiliations

¹ King Khalid University, Department of Management Information Systems, College of Business, PO Box-3247, Abha, 61471, Saudi Arabia.
² Jazan University, Department of Information Technology and Security, College of Computer Science & Information Technology, PO Box- 114, Jazan, 45142, Saudi Arabia.
³ King Khalid University, College of Computer Science, PO Box-3247, Abha, 61471, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Contributing to Vision 2030, Saudi higher educational institutions (HEIs) must reform their education system, reevaluate their potentialities, and priorities to support higher education development in achieving the Vision theme. With this goal, several educational innovation projects have been introduced to attain the vision's higher educational development strategic objectives. This study investigates the HEIs' current practices and analyses their achievements and the progress toward achieving the Vision's higher education development goals for the first review cycle (2016-2020) of the Vision. Academic expert interviews and surveys were conducted involving participants from the top ten Saudi universities to know how these institutions contribute to the Vision progress using an innovative approach. Juxtaposing HEIs' potential and priorities with the Vision's higher educational objectives to determine the development progress. The findings reveal that the most sought priorities are the new modern curriculum, industry-based academic learning outcomes, skilled graduates, faculty development, innovative research, foreign universities collaborations, accreditations, and lifelong learning focusing on future skills. The tendency of these priorities works on higher education development, improving professional competency, filling the gaps between higher education outcomes and the growing market needs, revitalizing universities, and linking to knowledge base society. The presented approach will be an effective tool for understanding how specifically these entities contribute toward achieving the vision's targets. It is a significant model for future studies, useful for analyses of higher education potentialities' performances, and enhances readers' understanding.

Keywords: Academic quality development; Education reforms; Higher education; Human capital development; Saudi vision 2030; Vision realization programs.