Is there any end to the problems that oil creates? The drastic decrease in the price of oil of late has caused economic woes in Saudi Arabia. There is all sorts of belt-tightening going on, and one area that is being squeezed is the foreign university scholarship program this is the program that has fuelled the huge growth of Saudi students studying in American and Canadian post-secondary institutions for the past ten years or so. In the 2014-2015 school year, 60,000 Saudi students were studying in US universities and thus represented the fourth largest group of international students.
How the program is changing or is going to change is not entirely clear. What is clear is that numbers are already down by about 20%… with further decreases quite possible. Of course, this is worrying for many institutions that have been relying on these scholarship students to prop up their numbers and financial reserves as it will be a loss that will be difficult if not impossible to replace.