Limites

Higher Education is a key aspect of modern states. Countries of all sizes and levels of development are keen to establish more institutions and develop them on an ongoing basis. This due to the perceived importance of the role played by education in propelling countries to advanced levels of growth (Albhouachi and al-Rubaie, 2005). Hopper (2007) points out that in most developing countries there is an increase in population and an improvement in high school completion rates. These factors have led to a rapid expansion

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in demand for HE. This expansion has previously caused a pressure on government spending for each student which can result in a negative impact on the quality of education. Currently, many governments tend to consider QA a priority and focus on structuring QAP for HE by establishing QA systems, or by enhancing and even reforming existing QA systems to confront new challenges (Hopper, 2007).

Borrowing successful initiatives or policies from somewhere else is a familiar practice for governments and often stems from a previous successful application of such policies or initiatives. Such borrowing, however, may lead to insufficient attention being paid to the cultural context in which an initiative will be applied  due to the mistaken belief that traversing cultural boundaries is easy (Harris, 2009). Albhouachi and al-Rubaie (2005) indicate that the application of any system to improve the quality of an education institution must ensure that the system does not become a hindrance to the advancement of the institution due to lack of compatibility with the cultural context of the organisation. It is therefore important to ensure that any new system is consistent with political, educational and social culture, economic requirements, and also take account of cultural values and tradition. Harris (2009) confirms that the borrowing of successful policies and initiatives makes sense, but the “cultural fit” should be taken into account and indeed is crucial in ensuring any the success of the adopted system.

In the light of the slow response of Arab countries to the QA trend, many studies confirmed that the response is protracted due to challenges such as the expansion of demand for HE, mismatched outputs of HE to the needs of the labour market and the weakness of education curricula (Barakat, 2009, Hamid, 2006, Tarawneh, 2010, Otaibi, 2009). There is also the challenge of funding for new QA activities, the difficulty of finding faculty for required specializations with sufficient experience, plus the absence of clear policies to build up the capacity of human resources. There can also be a lack of harmony between the management style of a university and requirements for the development of modern HEIs, together with an absence of strategic planning. Administrative procedures can be complicated. There can also be a deficiency in the adoption of a vision, mission and objectives, which direct the work of HEIs towards QA (Barakat, 2009, Hamid, 2006, Tarawneh, 2010, Otaibi, 2009). Hopper (2007) argues that despite there being some agreement on QA mechanisms and the general principles of good practice, each country has its own unique context and its own purposes for QA. For

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example, the QA needs for the HE systems in developed countries can be vastly different from the needs of those in developing countries. Attention must be paid, therefore, to local challenges  such as a lack of resources and capacity to conduct and complete effective QAP.

Saudi Arabia has not been immune from the challenges faced by countries in the region in seeking to improve the quality of education. In response to a continuing demand to develop HE, Saudi Arabia has adopted and instigated quality systems. Today an independent assessment body monitors HEIs on an ongoing basis to ensure their commitment to national standards. Saudi Arabia has become part of a global policy trend towards activity focused on quality in HE (M.E, 2015c). The Ministry of Education has taken action in order to build a good cultural context in preparation for the ongoing implementation of QA systems. Many universities have updated academic curricula plans and established more modern academic programmes. Partnerships were conducted with local and international bodies to support the efforts of universities (Bakhit, 2009). Some universities have developed campus environments in accordance with this and introduced a number of e- management applications to accomplish such management activities (Bakhit, 2009).

In 2004, the Saudi government established an independent national body concerned with assessment and academic accreditation to ensure the quality of HE: namely, the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA). Section 10 of Chapter 4 in this study reviews the new academic accreditation and QA systems in KSA.

The Commission sought to achieve the following objectives (M.E, 2015c, p8):

1. Develop rules, standards and conditions of evaluation and academic accreditation, and formulate regulations to ensure their application in different academic institutions after high school.

2. Establish rules and standards relating to practices of academic work  such as teaching, training and the of drafting regulations to ensure their application in academic institutions.

3. Accredit new university or equivalent institutions  such as colleges and institutes  and accredit their departments, specialties and academic plans.

4. Review and evaluate the academic performance of existing university or equivalent institutions periodically and accredit their departments and plans.

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5. Coordinate the accreditation of programmes and departments of HEIs in the Kingdom by global accreditation bodies.

6. Evaluate and accredit bachelor’s degrees, higher diploma programmes, masters and doctoral degrees or the equivalent, and review their requirements periodically. 7. Evaluate and accredit specialised post-high school academic programmes, whether

they are governmental or private.

8. Evaluate and accredit training programmes in government and private educational institutions.

9. Participate in the preparation of general plans and the development of academic performance in different fields.

10. Disseminate information and data relating to academic accreditation for the purposes of raising awareness, scientific research, and the making of information available to parties and individuals.

In 2012, only two of the twenty-five government universities could apply full QAP and had obtained institutional accreditation (Alarabiya.net, 2012). At the end of 2016, NCAAA pointed out that the number of universities that have obtained institutional accreditation had increased to five (NCAAA, 2016).

This limited achievement, following all the effort, resources and time invested, is surely a catalyst and call for research to explore the factors or challenges blocking or limiting HEIs from reasonable and necessary achievements in the field of QA. From my point of view, as a citizen of KSA, this can be observed in many projects of reform or development in several sectors of Saudi government institutions. It is difficult to determine the main challenges, but from my experience of working in several public education institutions, and from my observation of the behaviour of individuals in social media, I noticed the impact of different intellectual arguments among stakeholders towards reform and development projects. This controversy has often divided most of the stakeholders into liberals and conservatives, and religion has become a major focus. Therefore, it is possible that such contention has a role in the failure to achieve satisfactory progress in the field of QA in HE. Hassan (2012) emphasises the importance of taking account of the local religious culture when embarking on the development of education projects, or the renewal of the education process to cope with changes and contemporary requirements.

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In considering the intellectual and cultural conflict that seems to affect the application of the new QA system, the liberal wing believes that there is a lack of political vision and strong will to change and there is no clear strategy. In addition, the national education policy is out-of-date. It was developed in 1968 and it has not been updated since. Moreover, there is no recognition of the problem – this can be seen, for example, in the decision-makers tendency to use the term 'development' instead of 'reform.' The liberal wing believes that reform and development projects in education often fail due to lack of consensus among the intellectual leaders of change. Liberals usually blame the conservative wing. They do this because the conservatives often show significant caution towards change and development projects that they believe come from outside the country and may threaten the identity of the community. Consequently, because the conservative wing gets wide support from the government and society, the progress of development projects have been slow. Despite the presence of movement towards change in Saudi universities, such movement remains vulnerable to relapse because it is not based on a clear identity and strong policies. Thus, legitimacy, solidity and continuity cannot be guaranteed (Essa, 2010).

Conversely, the conservative wing confirms that religious culture does not reject any project to develop education if it complies with local religious and cultural teachings. In this regard, Hassan (2012) points out that the quality issue is a main principle in the religious community and that the term ‘quality’ is linked to many of the principles in the local culture, such as transparency, credibility, control and good performance . Zayer and Sabri (2012) define QA from an Islamic perspective as a process aimed at producing high quality educational products through offering required incomes with continuous improvements which are based on defined standards to achieve market requirements. The main motivation behind this process is that of reward from Allah. Although the conservative wing seeks to move towards continuous development of the mission of educational institutions and their objectives, the optimal investment of financial and human resources and the enhancement of the quality of education, they show some caution about following the new global trends in the QA field because they may have concerns over the consequences of globalization and the fear of losing cultural identity. Therefore, their response might be subsequently slow toward reforms and development projects (El-Arini, 2007, Al-Sultani, 2015).

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It can be concluded that both sides might seek to achieve the same goal. Nevertheless, the responses look different and unfortunately the controversy is continuing, hindering reform and the development of projects. This may be due to an inability to manage and invest the variety of perspectives in the completion of reform. This study has the potential to contribute to the discovery of more possible dimensions and issues with cultural challenges, and other challenges pertinent to the limited achievements in QA operation in Saudi HE. In addition, it seeks to provide educators and decision-makers with a heuristic framework to help build a solid cultural context for the successful operation of QA.