Saudi Arabia: Higher Education and Gradual Reform

The king of Saudi Arabia missed the Sept. 24-25 G-20 summit in Pittsburgh so he could attend the opening of King Abdullah University of Science & Technology near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The kingdom's strict moral code will not be enforced on the new campus, something bound to produce a backlash from socially conservative elements. Even so, the new university might spark incremental change in Saudi Arabia's strict conservative culture, something not lost on the House of Saud.