"With the financial crunch…the [U.S.] administrators look to the international students to a degree as saviors," said Michael Launius, vice president of international students at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash., where Saudi enrollment has jumped from nothing in 2005 to about 150 this past school year.
To accommodate the new Saudi students, Central Washington administrators offered to provide halal food prepared in accordance with Islamic law, or set aside space on campus for a mosque. The Saudi students declined, preferring to eat at town cafes like everyone else, Mr. Launius said.
The Saudi contingent "doesn't seem to have caused any kind of consternation and stir at all," said Mr. Launius. "I think this is a good exposure to what these folks are actually like."
Saudi Arabia's international scholarship program, launched when Saudi King Abdullah took the throne in 2005, is a key part of his efforts to equip future generations in handling the country's main challenges, including a fast-growing population and declining oil reserves.
Since taking over, the Saudi king has emphasized scientific education and exposure to foreign countries as keys to combat religious extremism and transform Saudi Arabia into a modern state. This year, the scholarship program has about 130,000 young people studying around the world, at an estimated cost of at least $5 billion since the program began.
The king's efforts to modernize, including the scholarship program, have led to constant tension between Western-influenced Saudis and a religiously educated core who hold heavy sway over society and reject modernization because it is associated with the West.
That internal tension was on display this month when Saudi Arabia, under threat of a ban from the Olympic Games, finally ended its status as the last Olympic nation to refuse to include women on its teams.
In the coming years, the Saudi monarchy will likely face mounting pressure to modernize economically and politically as the country spends down its oil wealth. The next Saudi kings will need an educated middle class, economists say, if the kingdom is to build a productive private sector and create jobs for millions of young Saudis.
The foreign scholarship program can create challenges for some students, particularly women, when they try to reintegrate into Saudi society after experiencing much more freedom abroad, some foreign students say. Unlike many international students who study in the U.S., most Saudis return to their home country after receiving their degrees, said James B. Smith, U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia since 2009.
King Abdullah, who is in his late 80s and was educated by clerics in a mosque, initiated the scholarship program after persuading U.S. officials, particularly President George W. Bush, to reopen the student visa service after 9/11. At a pivotal meeting in 2005 at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, the King convinced Mr. Bush that the education program was crucial for the two countries' long-term relationship.
"The impassioned plea that the King made for this, and the long-term importance of the relationship, really made an impression on President Bush," said Frances Townsend, former homeland security adviser, who attended the 2005 meeting.
As late as the 1950s, Saudi Arabia had a literacy rate below 5%. Today, the percentage of literate Saudis has reached 79%, according to the CIA World Factbook. One-third have university degrees, the World Bank says.
Even so, religious conservatives have a lingering influence over curriculum. Critics say Saudi schooling is long on theology and short on science and math. The kingdom ranked 93rd out of 129 countries in UNESCO'S 2008 quality of education index.
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