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King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia started in 2009 with a $10 billion endowment [1]. As far as I can tell, they’re stil

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia started in 2009 with a $10 billion endowment [1]. As far as I can tell, they’re still not noteworthy on the global stage. 1- https://www.science.org/content/article/can-saudi-arabia-build-mit-10-billion-says-yes-desert-school-opens https://www.science.org/content/article/can-saudi-arabia-bui...

l33t2328 4y ago
That’s not that much to start a school from scratch. You need dozens of buildings and a huge amount of equipment to be competitive, and that’s without mentioning the fact that many academics don’t want to work in Saudi Arabia.
bruceb 4y ago
Because very few young people would list Saudi Arabia as place to visit, even for free. Starting with a $10b endowmwnt in North America, Europe, or East Asia would probably create a noteworthy university inside 15 years.
- djbebs 4y ago
  Millions of people go to Saudi Arabia yearly...
  - hhjinks 4y ago
    60% of college students are women. Do you think most women would want to study abroad in Saudi Arabia? Teach? Do research? Seems like you'll have a hard time becoming a notable university when you've alienated the most numerous category of academics.
  - sammalloy 4y ago
    Do you mean for religious pilgrimage to Mecca? That’s different from what the OP is talking about.
eunos 4y ago
It's a very specific university that focus on STEM. So it lacks certain renown unless you worked intensively with their researchers.
moralestapia 4y ago
Doing my part here and sharing my experience, as I have done before in this forum. I was a PhD student there until my little daughter (4yo at the time) was kidnapped by academic staff and I had to negotiate our safe return to our home country. I still can't believe the kind of abuse we went through and it baffles me how the people that orchestrated this are still there, no consequences at all, after committing a very serious crime against me and my family. I am writing everything down and plan to publish it on a website someday, because I want others to be aware of this, particularly young students like I was at the time. To set things straight, I don't put the blame on this on the Saudi government or the Saudi people. From my experience, they are well-intended on this and wish to do good to themselves and others; some people I met there are my friends to this day. I honestly believe that not even Saudi authorities know in detail what is actually going on. Anyway, with regards to this particular university, it is a place thriving with sociopaths, who are not from Saudi, and who run the place as if it was their own personal kingdom. Due to the special circumstances of the university, the Saudi government has little involvement with it and it behaves like its own self-contained jurisdiction (even though is not). This created a situation where there is a remote, isolated place with almost unlimited money, run by people who have severe psychological issues and have free, unsupervised reign over what happens there and with an artificial hierarchy of directors/VPs/professors/students/workers that dictates your whole life (because that is basically your whole life while you are there). And then, what happened is that they inadvertently created a Stanford prison experiment of an unprecedented scale, and it is really as bad as you can imagine.
- danrocks 4y ago
  It is quite the claim to be making without providing any details. I feel it does not strengthen your argument to do so.
  - burnished 4y ago
    A personal anecdote isn't an argument.
    - moralestapia 4y ago
strikelaserclaw 4y ago
As others have stated, if Harvard university relocated to Saudi Arabia, i would expect it to become a low ranked university in 10-15 years. Harvard became world famous because it was one of the crown jewel university of the most powerful nation on earth for the last 80 years, take it away from this context and it would have been just a good but not special university.
lern_too_spel 4y ago
Until 2019, nobody could visit you if you taught or studied there. KAUST's problems aren't financial. https://nyti.ms/2mmdeMF https://nyti.ms/2mmdeMF

l33t2328 4y ago

That’s not that much to start a school from scratch. You need dozens of buildings and a huge amount of equipment to be competitive, and that’s without mentioning the fact that many academics don’t want to work in Saudi Arabia.

bruceb 4y ago

Because very few young people would list Saudi Arabia as place to visit, even for free. Starting with a $10b endowmwnt in North America, Europe, or East Asia would probably create a noteworthy university inside 15 years.

djbebs 4y ago
Millions of people go to Saudi Arabia yearly...
- hhjinks 4y ago
  60% of college students are women. Do you think most women would want to study abroad in Saudi Arabia? Teach? Do research? Seems like you'll have a hard time becoming a notable university when you've alienated the most numerous category of academics.
- sammalloy 4y ago
  Do you mean for religious pilgrimage to Mecca? That’s different from what the OP is talking about.

eunos 4y ago

It's a very specific university that focus on STEM. So it lacks certain renown unless you worked intensively with their researchers.

moralestapia 4y ago

Doing my part here and sharing my experience, as I have done before in this forum. I was a PhD student there until my little daughter (4yo at the time) was kidnapped by academic staff and I had to negotiate our safe return to our home country. I still can't believe the kind of abuse we went through and it baffles me how the people that orchestrated this are still there, no consequences at all, after committing a very serious crime against me and my family. I am writing everything down and plan to publish it on a website someday, because I want others to be aware of this, particularly young students like I was at the time. To set things straight, I don't put the blame on this on the Saudi government or the Saudi people. From my experience, they are well-intended on this and wish to do good to themselves and others; some people I met there are my friends to this day. I honestly believe that not even Saudi authorities know in detail what is actually going on. Anyway, with regards to this particular university, it is a place thriving with sociopaths, who are not from Saudi, and who run the place as if it was their own personal kingdom. Due to the special circumstances of the university, the Saudi government has little involvement with it and it behaves like its own self-contained jurisdiction (even though is not). This created a situation where there is a remote, isolated place with almost unlimited money, run by people who have severe psychological issues and have free, unsupervised reign over what happens there and with an artificial hierarchy of directors/VPs/professors/students/workers that dictates your whole life (because that is basically your whole life while you are there). And then, what happened is that they inadvertently created a Stanford prison experiment of an unprecedented scale, and it is really as bad as you can imagine.

danrocks 4y ago
It is quite the claim to be making without providing any details. I feel it does not strengthen your argument to do so.
- burnished 4y ago
  A personal anecdote isn't an argument.
  - moralestapia 4y ago

strikelaserclaw 4y ago

As others have stated, if Harvard university relocated to Saudi Arabia, i would expect it to become a low ranked university in 10-15 years. Harvard became world famous because it was one of the crown jewel university of the most powerful nation on earth for the last 80 years, take it away from this context and it would have been just a good but not special university.

lern_too_spel 4y ago

Until 2019, nobody could visit you if you taught or studied there. KAUST's problems aren't financial. https://nyti.ms/2mmdeMF https://nyti.ms/2mmdeMF