Gainan al-Ghamdi writes a sarcastic, yet true, story about scholarships for Saudi students given by the British ministry of foreign affairs. I agree with the writer when he says that the process of making decisions in most government bodies is so centralized that we lose many good opportunities.
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Hey ahmed, thanks for showing this article, i remember it was so so difficult for me to get my scholorship, and i have dual citizenship (british/saudi), they made so many excuses like you must declare your british citizenship to saudi etc etc and after a long time i got the scholorhsip but her article is excellent lol i wish someone wrote stuff like this about 2 years ago lol
This is slightly off-topic, but I’ve been fortunate to study for a masters degree in Scotland two years ago under one of these scholarships, albeit for Oman not Saudi Arabia.
The British government spends a lot of money to get students from all around the world to study in the UK under these Chevening scholarships. In Oman alone the number is about 13 a year. Unfortunately, the process of choosing the candidates changes from year to year. It seems that even within the British embassy no one really wants to be responsible for it, so every year they give the job to someone else. And every year the new guy (or gal) has a new set of criteria of what they’re looking for. For the past few years they’ve been looking almost exclusively at government employees. I was disqualified immediately because I’m a banker. Luckily I found a way to get my name back in the running, and al7amdlilah we were doubly lucky that my wife and I both got chosen to go.
I think there should be a unified way for shortlisting candiates. I don’t agree with the idea of doing it through universities though. I didn’t go to uni here in Oman. Would I have had a chance to do my masters if the process had been restricted to those who graduated from Sultan Qaboos University?
Muscati i agree with you that there should be a uniformed system for choosing universities.
I remember i initially was told i could get a good scholorship with aramco, i needed 98% to qualify and i had 97.8 overall lol but they allowed me however they told me i must spend a whole year doing an english course and all, it would have been a year wasted as i studied 15 years in an english school.
When i applied through the british embassy they where telling me about how im not eligible for schlorship as i am a british citizen then can you beleive a few weeks ago they contacted me to come for an interview eventually it got sorted out.
You know muscati one of my sisters is married to an omani and he got a scholorship here in uk in reading uni? im not sure if you know it but they where many many omanis there on scholorships and he was contracted to work with the govt after he finished, he managed to get his scholorship alot easier then me, when i got mine i was limited to a certain type of course and university, and until now i have so many problems with funding and paperwork they always seem very slow and backward but my brother in law he hardly ever had any problems everything was done so orderly and properly organised.
anyways thats my rant over lol
Maybe i should have been born omani lol