Saudi Gazette reports that due to global inflation and fluctuating international exchange rates, Saudi students studying abroad will receive a 15% increase in their stipends. Another increase is being discussed.
I’m bemused by the fact that the raise comes in reaction to reports that Saudi students may actually be working to help defray their expenses. It is the norm in the US for students to hold part-time (and sometimes full-time) jobs while in university. There’s nothing quite like having to work in the real world to prepare students for, well, working in the real world. I’m sure, though, that the students won’t object to getting a bit more money in their pockets: I’ve never met one who did!
Studying abroad stipends to be increased, official
Riyadh – A senior education official denied claims that students studying abroad on government scholarships have been forced to take up jobs as baby-sitters and dishwashers because of low monthly stipends.
Ali Al-Attayia, the General Supervisor of Financial and Administrative Affairs, at the Ministry of Higher Education, said to combat fluctuating exchange rates the stipends have been increased by 15 percent. He also said another plan to further increase the student stipends, has been submitted to the higher authorities.
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July:31:2008 - 09:37
I thought one of the agreements people who come to the USA on a student visa make is that they will not work? Maybe I am wrong.
The rise in stipdend is long over due. They hadnt done one in some time.
The fact is, probably for a majority of Saudis here for school, the stipend is not what supports them. It isnt enough to cover living expense.
My wife got $1,700 a month when she was on it. That was for a woman with two kids. It was about $1,200 a month then for a single female with no mehram. You just cannot live on that. Even with the “liar’s mehram” cash it still only bumps it to $2,200.
Unlike the US military and other organisations, you dont get more money for living in expensive areas. Try living on even $2,200 in a place like Northern Virgina. You cannot do it, at least not well, certainly impossible on the non mehram stipend of $1,200 a month.
The fact is most Saudis who come to the USA are supported by their families back in Saudi. Many of them use the stipend money to support their BMW or other luxueries here.
Either way, good news for the few Saudis who actually rely on the money to support themselves with no money from home.
July:31:2008 - 11:36
There are regulations that limit the kinds and amount of work foreign students can do, but it’s not at all difficult for foreign students to find jobs, even if only within their universities.
I’m not at all confident that most Saudi students these days are sporting about in BMWs. In the past, certainly–and a BMW would have been at the low-budget end of the scale. Now, with more and more students coming from less rich families, I think aspirations and car choices are a bit more modest.
The Saudi government’s concern that students spend their time on school work makes sense. But it does exclude them from the realities of most students in American universities: part-time jobs. I think there’s an awful lot to be learned in taking menial jobs for various periods of time, humility being only the most obvious. I had, easily, a dozen different kinds of jobs putting me in contact with many different kinds of people as well as learning to function in different work environments. I would not trade that experience at all.
July:31:2008 - 11:53
I would to work my way through school as well. I would have loved a full ride like the Saudi students here get.
I have known many Saudis that have been on the scholarship and I have never known one to work. The only time I saw them work was after the scholarship was over and they were staying past the length of their visas.
July:31:2008 - 13:04
Actually i remember about eight yrs ago, when i was teaching at a univ. and a friend of mind, a paki american, who owned a sub/sandwhich store needed two or three ppl 2 work during da summer since his american employees wanted a vacation. I knew a couple of egyptian exchange students so i later talked with one of them if they or anybody they knew were interested in working at sub store. They already had part time jobs and da rest was scholarship money they got from da university but he told me 2 give him a couple of dayz and he would get back with me becuz he knew there were quite some students who really needed extra money and would b delighted 2 work—i thought he would contact his fellow egyptian friends, or maybe some moroccans or lebanese—but 2 my surprise a few dayz later i got emails from a few saudi students who i later met 2 talk—first i thought it was a joke, i mean they drove good cars, dressed in gucci and stuff—got good money from home whether from govt. or family—but i was flabbergasted when they confided 2 me that while indeed there were very indeed rich saudi students in america, but most of them very just middle class or upper middle class students and da reason y they drove BMW or wore gucci was becuz they got about 3000 dollars monthly stipend from govt., and an extra 1000 for rent,electricity, water bills—and da BMW or lexus they drove was basically financed at very eazy monthly leases from da university financial aid center, and regarding da bunch of gucci and versace shirts and ray ban glasses, some were gifts from rich relatives or friends b4 they left saudi and some of it was becuz according 2 them, b4 any saudi student leaves for abroad, they get an extra 2000 dollars 2 buy clothes or other essentials—i dont know if such is true anymore, but at that time this is what he said then—and another very surprising thing he told me that most of da saudi students, who r mostly middle class or upper middle class, lease a good apartment but share it like four or five ppl together 2 save extra money—then 2 keep up their high life style, they sometimes dont mind working part time at preferably muslim owned businesses. they admitted that were it not for da generous govt. stipend, they would have had 2 work full time and their financial status would b similar 2 that of students from egypt,lebnon or morocco who r forced 2 sweat it out 2 finance their studies or get a univ. scholarship—just 2 add, even though it is not related 2 da subject at hand, but maybe it is in da sense that saudi students get free money 2 throw around unlike other foreign arab students, most of them r dull and take extra yrs. 2 complete their degree. They dont seem serious about their studies and only care mostly about living a high and playboy type life. However some of them, were serious about completing their studies on time and worked really hard like this female saudi shiite student of mine i had—however i heard that now da saudi govt. is very serious about this—if da saudi student doesnt complete their studies on time or doesnt pass, they r given a warning from their govt. and if they still dont complete or pass it in da probationary status given, da govt. immediately cancels their scholarship or stipend. That has made many of them 2 wise up now.
July:31:2008 - 13:34
Zani,
They were having you on if they told you they got $3,000 a month stipend plus another $1,000 a month for rent and bills.
A single person gets around $1,300 now. If it is a female with a mehram tack on an extra 1,000. Male students get the female with mehram rate.
If the man is married he gets a certain amount of money for every kid.
What these guys told you amounts to $4,000 a month, 8 years ago. That is not true, not 8 years ago, not now.
The stipend is there to cover expenses and the like. There is no extra money for rent or anything else. There is, I believe a small amount included for books and supplies every year, but as my wife explained, it doesnt even cover the amount need for books in one semester.
If you get really good grades you can get a bonus at the end of the year and when you graduate you get a rather nice check based on your GPA. That check can be more than $5,000 I am told. If I remember right my wife got a check for almost $4,000 for her undergrad.
You are right to say that some will take extra years to complete their degree. There is one girl we know of whose father works at the Embassy that was on her 7th year of undergrad studies at the university. Extensions that long take some wasta, but it is done.
Why not sit around and go to school, have the tuition paid, and get $2,300 a month, and in her case, all whilst you live at home with no bills other than for your own fun?
Sign me up!
July:31:2008 - 15:07
AbuSinan,
I think you have the right numbers. When I was going to school the amount was around $750 with a yearly check for books, health care and clothing allowance. Those were not much as real health care insurance would have cost much more. I just used the money for spending and I was lucky to not get seriously sick. If I had a fever I would just go to the school nurse’s office and get antibiotics.
Regarding work, if I remember correctly the US relaxed the rules around 1986 to allow part time work for foreign students outside the school. I think it was restricted to work related to your major (not 100% on this one). Before that you were only allowed to work inside the campus. I took advantage of that to make extra money as I worked in the Cafeteria and did assistant teaching when I was qualified for it. The pay was not good, but you do what you have to be independent from family support, which was a goal of mine at the time.
July:31:2008 - 15:38
Saudi in USA,
You dont get money for healthcare anymore. The Embassy provides a card or something that you present to healthcare provders and they bill the Cultural Mission directly.
It is a good deal in that the healthcare for students is now free, but when you think of how Saudi government works, it is better in theory than practice.
My wife was on the scholarship when we got married and she kept it although I could have given her mine. Sometimes the government would take 5-6 months to pay the bills, leaving the doctor’s offices calling and demanding their money.
There was an atricle I read some time back, like two years ago, that talked about arrests that had been made at the Saudi government office here in the US handling the payments. It would seem some of the employees had been coming up with fake bills and making large payments to doctor’s that didnt exist.\
Either way, think about it, free tuition, free medical care and a stipend of some $2,300 tax free for single males? It would be hard to get a better deal than that.
There is nothing like that in the USA.
July:31:2008 - 15:55
I’ll say! When I was a grad student in biosciences just a couple of years ago, the annual stipend was $23,000 BEFORE taxes with free tuition and medical care (dental/vision/pharmacy not included). After taxes I took home about 1700 a month. And that was at the high end of the graduate student stipends. Biosciences was the best-funded program on campus. My friends in graduate programs in Humanities were lucky in they managed to get 12,000 a year.
August:01:2008 - 02:07
The terms and conditions of the Saudi Scholarship Programme is that you cannot work during your period of study (and if you’re a girl then neither can your male chaperone). If you do then your scholarship will be terminated. It sounds silly, but the Saudi Scholarship Programme is huge; we’re talking about thousands of students entering the programme every single year, and so if all the students were to work during their period of study, it might be something that the host countries do not want. It’s just too much of a headache for the Saudi government.
August:01:2008 - 06:08
Thanks very much for that information. I can see how it could become a major headache to the scholarship administrators. It’d be awfully tough to police, though…
August:01:2008 - 08:51
Awfully tough to police? Well, the Saudis try. It is well known they employ spies to keep tabs on students, both in real life and on the internet.
No fear, however. If you have wasta or the right name do as you please. No wasta, no known name, look out, a little infraction can get you sent back home!
September:11:2010 - 00:48
saudi students are lucky for the fact that they live in such a rich country.once they go through a recession just like every economy does they wont have such great scholarships.
September:13:2010 - 15:28
ok. so what if they didnt have the funds to supply the kids with these scholarships. then where would we all be in ten years from know?
September:13:2010 - 16:01
We’d be in a worse off place, with another generation of Saudi students getting sub-par educations and no way out. At least this way, there’s a strong cadre being educated in a wide range of countries, learning not only the subject matter of their degrees, but also how other cultures function.