Abstract
The higher education in Saudi Arabia has been one of the fastest growing education systems in the world over the past decade. A rapid expansion on a geographical and quantitative level has provoked many challenges in Saudi higher education. Government and education planners have exerted various efforts to overcome the major challenges it faces. Research by postgraduate students and professional researchers at specialised institutions has grown rapidly in this area. This chapter reviews the main characteristics of the Saudi higher education system. It also presents the key challenges facing the system, in particular, challenges associated with the fast growth in development taking place in the country. The processes required to overcome the various hurdles and obstacles in Saudi higher education, in turn, made the system very fertile ground for research and investigation. This chapter also analyses the foremost issues published in higher education research, and in particular emphasises the regenerative aspects of this field of research. It also indicates the possible wide range of research needed to explore the Saudi higher education system in more detail and to discover alternative solutions to the challenges it faces and propose possible recommendations. Towards the end of this chapter, some main platforms of the Saudi research community in higher education are pointed out, and their major activities are briefly reviewed.