Partnerships between Universities and the Public Sector Institutions in the Development of Research Scientific in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The partnership between universities and the public sector organizations has been shown to be a major tool for the diversion of the Saudi Arabian economic system from oil-driven system to a research-driven economic system. To further interrogate the importance of these collaborations, this study takes it further to gain insights from critical stakeholders from universities and the public sector. To achieve this, 139 stakeholders were drawn from three universities in Saudi Arabi (King Saud University (KSU), The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and the King Khalid University), and two private sector organizations (Aramco and the Ministry of Education). These institutions have established strategic partnerships at various levels aimed at advancing scientific researches for the development of research-driven economic system in Saudi Arabia in light of the Vision 2030. Through the use of survey strategy, data was gathered using questionnaire, mainly to answer to two critical research questions for the study. Analysis was conducted using relevant statistical measures, including the acceptability and rejections of key statements by the stakeholders that participated in the study, the percentile values of the survey, the mean and the standard deviation. The result indicates that university-public sector partnership in Saudi Arabi employ arrays of strategies in the development of scientific research initiatives for a research-driven economic system in the Kingdom. Some of the strategies include promotion of joint research initiatives, information sharing strategies, creation of approaches for funding, engaging students in strategic research initiatives, and combined development of research facilities across the nation. The study also unveiled critical challenges affecting the use of partnership between universities and public sector groups to enhance development of scientific research. The findings indicate that inadequate communication between the partnership groups, insufficient funding, inability to merge institutional objectives, bureaucracy, and lack of long-term planning are key challenges. It is thus concluded that the public sector and the universities must accept the fact that a research-driven economic system in Saudi Arabia is highly dependent on the innovative initiatives in scientific research from them.