Saeed Al-Serahi Okaz newspaper In this article I stress the importance of keeping our universities open to distinguished professors, scholars and thinkers regardless of their nationalities. Because of this, the universities should be excluded from the Saudization programs. When I said in a previous article, “This is the way they should be,” I was referring to the modest academic standard of professors currently recruited by the universities. Some readers said that if the universities are not interested in recruiting efficient foreign professors then they should at least show readiness to absorb the distinguished local professors. It is because the universities that are incapable of attracting outstanding foreign professors will not be able to make the best use of distinguished local professors. It should be understood that the core of the argument is not whether we agree or disagree about the Saudization of the academic posts in the professional institutions. It rather focuses on the future generation who is the victim of unqualified local professors employed by the universities. Those who reacted to my previous article also brought up the salary scales of foreign professors at our universities saying such scales will never attract renowned professors from any part of the world. Some others said making ideology a criterion in the selection of foreign professors will never help attract distinguished academic talent to our universities. Let us localize our academic jobs and accept all failures but we should admit that the current Saudization programs do not differentiate between fuel stations, women's accessory shops and top academic institutions.
