King Abdullah Scholarship Program - Essay Example

The King Abdullah Scholarship is a program whose aim is to provide students an avenue to the best Universities in pursuit of higher learning. The criterion for the selection of academic disciplines is on a needs basis. There is consideration for the needs of national corporations, government ministries as well as the private sector when selecting the disciplines (Taylor, and Albasri 110). The selection seeks to fulfill the needs of job markets in Saudi Arabia. Mostly, undergraduate students wishing to apply for the scholarship can only choose to do a course in medicine, medical science as well as health science.

Flexibility in the course selection is only available for graduate applicants. Even though the Saudi Arabian government limits the choices students have, it does not choose what course each student will pursue (Taylor, and Albasri 110). The program aims at equipping Saudi youth with the necessary skills and expertise to develop government departments as well as the private sector. Its objective is to develop the Saudi human resource to be at par or competitive in world job markets. The program also aims at creating future leaders from the youth.

Apart from developing the youth into leaders, the Scholarship program also serves another purpose. It seeks to cultivate patriotism, establish and develop cultural understanding with the countries in which the students study as well as foster cultural exchange. Such relations would be of great benefit not only to Saudi Arabia, but also to the host country.