Studying in Saudi Arabia
Introduction
Measuring the quality of higher education in universities in a country like Saudi Arabia may involve a series of steps that may culminate in compilation and assessment of resources that assist in supporting the academic programs and the institutional effectiveness in assessing the knowledge gained by the students who have enrolled at the university. These actions may involve the use of examinations, questionnaires, surveys or other methods of evaluating the performance of students.
Definition of the problem
The first step in measuring the quality of higher education would involve the definition of the problem. The nature of higher education is wide and it covers the performance of students in examination and projects evaluations, performance of the university graduates in the job market and the quality of research work that the students and their lecturers are engaged in.
Developing an approach to the problem
To measure student performance in examinations would involve rankings of students in terms of performance and the grades obtained. The average mean grade would then be calculated and the students who are below the average mean grade would be counted and compared to the total number of the students who sat for the examination.
The performance of the university students in the job market can be measured by the use of a questionnaire which can be sent to various organizations within Saudi Arabia or the regions or country’s where the bulk of the university students are employed. These questionnaires would contain questions that relate to the performance and evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the university graduate in the job market.
The other measurement would be to gather views on the use of the universities data and research work and if the work done by the lecturers and the students has any relevance with the needs of the stakeholders in the market.
Formulating a Research design
To collect the performance of students during the examination would involve obtaining the performance registers of the students from the lecturers or heads of departments and compiling the required list of students and their corresponding grades and marks obtained.
To obtain the information on the performance of the students in the job market, then a questionnaire would be sent out to the companies where the university graduates have been employed to be filled by their supervisors.
The importance of the universities research work can also be evaluated by the use of a questionnaire which can be sent to all the prospective users of the university’s research work to gauge the importance of the work.
Doing fieldwork and collecting the data
To obtain the average mean grade of students who sat for the university examination would involve the collection of the examination results for a number of years. These would involve physical examination of the universities records after obtaining permission from the university’s administration to conduct the exercise. The marks or grades of students who are below the average mean grade would then be counted and compared to the total number of the students who sat for the examination (Franklin, 2012).
The questionnaires sent to the employers and the university’s stakeholders can be retrieved physically by the data collectors. Interviews can also be conducted on the overall performance of the university’s graduates from the general public or from other interested sectors of the economy.
Preparing and Analyzing the Data
If the percentage of the total number of students who have achieved more than the average mean score is higher than 50% then performance of the university would be considered average if it’s higher then it would be considered to be even better. However, if a large number of students who sat for the examination have lower averages than the average mean score then the performance of the university would be considered to be below average.
The questionnaires obtained from the companies on the performance of students in the job market would be analyzed and the average assessment made on the average performance of the students in the market i.e. if the performance is excellent, fair or below average.
The usefulness of the university’s research would also be evaluated on the basis of the questionnaires obtained from the prospective users of the research work. The importance of the research work would then be measured i.e. whether they are useful or not.
Preparing and Presenting Data
Once the information has been analyzed, the information can be presented in the form of a pie chart which may reflect the percentage rankings of student’s performance at the university and their performance in the job market. The opinion of the stakeholders on the usefulness of the university’s research work can also be included on the presentation. Other forms of presentations may also be included like bar and line graph to indicate the historical performance trend of the students average performance in their past examinations and also in the job market.
2. In case of high school education the measurement of quality education would be restricted to the performance of students in their examinations and their performance at the university level. Some students join the job market soon after graduating from high school but the number is not so high.
The first step in measuring the quality of higher education in high school would also involve the definition of the problem. The nature of higher education is not so wide in high schools and it covers the performance of students in high school examination and at the university colleges.
Data collectors will have to be involved in physical examination of the high school examination registers and also the universities records to compare their performance. These should be done after obtaining permission from the school’s or the university’s administration to conduct the exercise. The marks or grades of students who are below the average mean grade would then be counted and compared to the total number of the students who sat for the examination.
Once the information has been analyzed and processed, the information can be presented in the form of a bar charts or pie chart to reflect the percentage rankings of student’s performance in school and at the university level. Other forms of presentations may also be included like bar graph and line graph to indicate the historical performance trend of the student’s average performance in their past examinations in both institutions.
3. Data misuse has been utilized to raise concern on the effects of the global warming and climatical changes. The information obtained from research facilities on global warming have been alarming and at times they have caused fear and panic among the affected people. Information concerning the effect of melting ice bergs in Greenland and the depletion of the ozone layer due to global warming’s have caused some nations to embrace the green economy movement where most products are recycled to prevent the cutting of trees and the use of electric vehicles have also being tried in some countries in a bid to cut down on carbon dioxide emission.
The other case also involved the Australian meteorologists who fudged their data by replacing the actual temperatures with artificial figures. But the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (ABM) claimed that the choice of instruments and calibration methods led to the discrepancies.
Reference
Franklin, M., 2012, ‘Understanding Research: Coping with the Quantitative-Qualitative Divide’. New York, Routledge.
