Saudi students in UK seek raise in allowances

LONDON. April 3. KAZINFORM Saudis studying in the UK met Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah here on Wednesday. The king is currently in London to attend the G-20 summit that was held yesterday.

Four students, including student club leader Sawsan Jaad, asked the king during a brief encounter for a 50-percent increase in allowances for dependents of the students, compensation for day-care services for students with children and a favorable adjustment to the fixed currency exchange rate of allowances. These allowances apply to students studying abroad under the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program. Because of the king's busy schedule, the students had little time to relay their requests, said Ibrahim Al-Sini, general chief of the Saudi students club in the UK. ?The meeting was quick. We were hoping to get to speak with the king but his schedule was tight so we only handed the requests (in writing),? he said. The students asked that the increase in allowances for dependents be restored. In November on a visit to the US, the king had announced a 50-percent increase in allowances for students. An official at the Ministry of Higher Education had accidentally applied the increase to dependents as well. After two months, the increase in allowances for dependents was halted after the Ministry of Finance noticed the error. ?The royal grant was meant for students and not their dependents,? said Al-Sini. During those two months, UK students enjoyed a 2,060-pound allowance (for one student and one dependent). That sum was reduced to 1,760 pounds after the error was corrected. ?After the increase we felt that would help our budget,? said Roa Al-Taweli, who lives with her brother as she works toward a master?s degree in midwifery at City University of London. ?The dependents? raise was around 200 pounds. That made a difference. London is very expensive. We pay most of our allowance on rent.? Hiba Sami, 25-year-old student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, said she was disappointed when she found out they would cut back the dependents? payment. ?We are living in the same place and spending the same amount of money. After all, both my brother and I needed the raise,? she said. Single Saudi women studying abroad under the scholarship program are required to have a family member accompany them during their studies. In many cases this family member is a brother. Saudi women with children also face the added burden of finding day-care centers in order to go to university. Maha Al-Ghamdi, 28-year-old student and mother of a newborn, hopes she would be supported in the day-care payment. ?Day-care centers are very expensive and we as student mothers cannot do without them,? she said. ?It is a necessity. Most of my allowance goes to day care.? Students receive a monthly allowance from the Ministry of Higher Education that is fixed to an exchange rate of SR5.93 even when the pound?s value was SR7. The fixed rate was applied last summer after students complained of the continuous fluctuation in the currency exchange rate. Now that the pound is worth about SR5.50, it is in the students? interest that the allowance be exchanged according to the market's current rate. Students are asking the Saudi government to apply the free-floating value of the pound if it drops below the fixed rate. ?When the exchange rate was fixed at SR5.93, it did not include a caveat that says the exchange rate would be fixed at that rate even if the pound depreciates. No one was expecting the British pound's severe crash,? said Al-Sini, Kazinform cites the Arab News.