Money can't buy everything! Here is the wealthy Saudi government unveiling the largest university for women in the world - and the women rightly ask what they are supposed to do with a degree when they are essentially not permitted to work outside the home. In Saudi Arabia women represent only 14.4% of the work-force.
"Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz inaugurated on Sunday the world's largest women's university, spread over eight million square meters (20,000 acres) and costing over 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion) to build. But many women are asking where the skills they acquire are going to be put to use.
Expected to host up to 40,000 students, the Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University in the outskirts of the capital Riyadh will have enough places in its first year classes for 60% of all the kingdom’s female high school graduates. "The King realizes his Dream, Inaugurating the Gate of Knowledge for the Saudi Woman," the Saudi daily Al-Watan ceremoniously announced in its headline Monday.
But the transition from education to employment is particularly hard for Saudi women, who comprise 58% of the kingdom's student body but only 14.4% of its national labor force. The figures for female employment are dramatically lower than in the West but low even compared with neighboring Gulf countries, such as the United Arab Emirates (59%), Kuwait (42.5%) and Qatar (36.4%).
Fawzia Al-Bakr, an education professor at the King Saud University in Riyadh, said the new university and its 15 departments will open educational fields previously limited to Saudi women, such as computer science, business and nursing. She said that although the new university will probably have no trouble filling its benches with eager students, finding employment will be a challenge for the women."
"Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz inaugurated on Sunday the world's largest women's university, spread over eight million square meters (20,000 acres) and costing over 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion) to build. But many women are asking where the skills they acquire are going to be put to use.
Expected to host up to 40,000 students, the Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University in the outskirts of the capital Riyadh will have enough places in its first year classes for 60% of all the kingdom’s female high school graduates. "The King realizes his Dream, Inaugurating the Gate of Knowledge for the Saudi Woman," the Saudi daily Al-Watan ceremoniously announced in its headline Monday.
But the transition from education to employment is particularly hard for Saudi women, who comprise 58% of the kingdom's student body but only 14.4% of its national labor force. The figures for female employment are dramatically lower than in the West but low even compared with neighboring Gulf countries, such as the United Arab Emirates (59%), Kuwait (42.5%) and Qatar (36.4%).
Fawzia Al-Bakr, an education professor at the King Saud University in Riyadh, said the new university and its 15 departments will open educational fields previously limited to Saudi women, such as computer science, business and nursing. She said that although the new university will probably have no trouble filling its benches with eager students, finding employment will be a challenge for the women."
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