RIYADH — Several students who won scholarships in the ninth stage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Foreign Scholarship Program to study learning disabilities had the shock of their life when American universities refused to accept them in the major. American universities denied admission to master's degree programs for several Saudi students who had majors in learning disabilities at undergraduate level. Bachelor's programs in learning disabilities are a medical major in most countries including the US while in the Kingdom it is a major in education and this was the reason for the inconsistency in basic requirements for admission to American universities. The students completed their English language programs, but they were rejected by the universities as they lacked any medical background, which is requirement by American universities for admission to master's programs in learning disabilities. The students who spoke to Al-Hayat newspaper about their plight said they did not know what would be their fate now. Faisal Al-Balawi said he was awarded a scholarship to study learning disabilities. "After the completion of the language year successfully, we approached US universities for admission to the Master's program. We were shocked that all universities rejected us on the basis that our specialization at the bachelor's level was education and not medicine," said Al-Balawi, who wanted to enroll in a Master's program in learning disabilities, which is a condition in his scholarship award. "We asked the Ministry of Education to change our major into a health program, but we did not get a response so far. Now we may be forced to return to the Kingdom empty-handed because we have only two months before our visas expire," he said. Scholarship student Mazen Al-Otaibi explained that there was no communication at all between the Saudi authorities and American or Canadian universities, because the students faced the same problem in both countries. "The current situation requires us to enroll in a new bachelor's program in order to be accepted in the major that we were sent to study in these countries. It's really a challenge especially as the rate of acceptance in this major is very low," said Al-Otaibi. "Our search for admission began seven months ago, and the answers from every university we approached were all the same that we must have a medical background to be accepted in this academic major," Al-Otaibi added.
