Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP) has reportedly been narrowed to include only top universities and programs, months after the program was expanded to include all students and their families.
Founded in 2005 and one of the late King Abdullah’s legacy programs, the scholarship fund covers full tuition, medical insurance, a monthly stipend for living expenses, and an annual round-trip airfare for undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students. Previously, there were few restrictions on where and what Saudis could study. The KASP served as much as a cross-cultural exchange between young Saudis and universities around the world as a program to educate Saudi’s future generations.
Saudi Arabia is having to cut back the program that supported 200,000 students abroad in 2015 because the price of oil is putting strain on the Kingdom’s budget.
The new scholarship program guidelines are significantly tighter and limit participants to those attending one of the top 100 universities globally, or studying a program rated in the top 50 in its field, according to a CNN Money report, which also noted that the government is cutting overall spending on education by 12% this year.
Roughly 90% of students from Saudi Arabia studying abroad are supported by the fund. Education and training still represents one of the highest areas of spending by the Saudi government in its 2016 budget.
The CNN article added that reduced Saudi scholarships will hurt American universities. “Universities that are no longer eligible for the King Abdullah Scholarship will experience the most immediate financial impact of these policy changes,” said Moody’s analyst Pranav Sharma.
