Universities 'not hiring' enough Saudi professors

(MENAFN- Arab News) The Ministry of Labor has issued 476 work visas for King Khaled University (KKU) to recruit academics and employees of other professions from 16 countries. A report by the General Auditing Bureau (GAB) showed that universities are not hiring enough Saudi professors who graduated from the government's foreign and domestic scholarship programs. The report included observations that universities are failing to fill vacancies with Saudis who should be given priority. Minister of Higher Education Khaled Al-Anqari had ordered the universities included in the GAB report, which was issued 10 days ago, to respond to the observations in writing within a month. The report showed that some universities employ more than 48 percent expatriate professors. It also observed that many Saudis are still working as part of the faculty even when they exceeded retirement age. King Khaled University's visas were to recruit 80 professors from Egypt and Sudan, 20 professors from South Africa and one from Eritrea, reported Al-Watan newspaper. Recruitment included 30 professors from Jordan, 20 from Syria, 40 from Yemen, 40 from Algeria, 30 from Morocco, 15 from Mauritania, 20 from Pakistan, 20 from Bangladesh, 35 from India, 20 from United Kingdom, 15 from Romania and 10 from France. The university's visas are part of 10,000 visas the Ministry of Labor had issued to government universities last year.