Government bodies in charge of health care for citizens show utmost attention to health higher education, continually provide for promoting the effectiveness of its institutes and their compliance to external demands, and in parallel strive to offer the highest level of health care to the community. These efforts are realized through developing appropriate mechanisms aiming at promoting the level of health care cadres to meet both the demands of job market and the health care development process.
This study earns it significance from the community’s ever-increasing aspirations for adequate levels of high quality health care services, which in turn calls for high levels of health higher education.
This study in general, aims at exploring the horizon for promoting the level of health higher education, and developing an appropriate mechanism for qualifying health care cadres that satisfy the requirements of the health care development process. In addition, this study should achieve a number of additional objectives, represented in the following:
Evaluating demand and supply levels for both health education and health care cadres.
Standardizing criteria for evaluating the internal effectiveness of university health education institutes and their compliance to the standards of job market.
Developing a model that links variables between the health higher education and job market.
Assessing the training and professional development organizations in the institutes of health higher education.
Defining the important parameters that suit the Kingdom from the experience of other countries in the field of health higher education.
Exploring feasible opportunities for the participation of private sector in establishing health higher education.
Proposing an organizational infrastructure that guarantees the success of a modern health higher education system.
The scope of this study and its aspects comprise the following:
Defining the mission, vision, and objectives of health higher education.
Specifying categories of health education in both the professional and specialized fields, and setting their priorities and objectives. Such categories are: dentistry, pharmaceuticals, nutrition, natural treatment, laboratory technologies, clinical nursing, diagnostic technologies, etc.
Assessing job market needs of all qualifications of health care cadres both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Categorizing the characteristics of health professions as required by the market and measuring the possible response of health higher education to provide the requirement in reference to the local and international trends both currently and in the future. This should address issues like exploring new job characteristics for the future and the possibility of marketing such to the job market to meet development plans stipulations.
Evaluating academic programs in health higher education, measuring their capability to qualify health care cadres for occupying offered jobs, and assessing their effectiveness and utility in reference to the requirement.
Conducting studies for developing standards and criteria to evaluate the compliance of health higher education institutes to the required levels of professionalism from the following aspects: quality, versatility, adaptability to the advances in the health field and meeting market expectations, professional level of graduates, and compliance to the ever-developing trends of practicing the profession both now and in the future.
Conducting studies for selecting appropriate guidelines and standardized criteria for utilization in evaluating the internal efficiency of existing and planned health higher education institutes and units, including: admission capacity, admission policies considering student levels and job market demands, financing, curriculum and academic programs, majors planning and developing, academic advising, effectiveness of educational processes, educational technologies, quality of tutoring methods, training programs, health education graduate studies, health scientific research, management systems, organizational hierarchy, auditing, scientific and technical environment, infrastructure and support services, compensation and salary scales, currently applied incentive rates and the required levels of compensation, moral of human resources, and productivity of employees.
Evaluating the systems adopted by faculties and management teams for training and professional development, and the means to broaden resources for institutes and units under the health higher education.
Exploring avenues for tele-medicine and developing the required human resources.
Conducting a study to isolate challenges and negativity of the health higher education and defining their causes, in addition to determining the gap between internal efficiency and the compliance with job market needs, and the means to eliminate it.
Reviewing and analyzing international experiences in the field of health higher studies to extract the conclusions and determine what is applicable for the Kingdom’s case.
Evaluating the effectiveness and validity of continuing health education, remote health training, support health care cadres training programs such as nursing, laboratory, and diagnostic ray specialists, and assessing their capability for the promotion of health education in order to broaden its role in serving development and the community.
The study requires making available data and information pertaining to the existing health higher education system showing weaknesses and strengths the influence of female secondary education and addressing the future ambitions and transformations that could positively affect the compliance with job market demands, and development needs. These requirements should include:
Specifying in order of importance all the variables and parameters related to the health higher education.
Collecting the required information from the primary and secondary sources.
Processing and analyzing the collected data to appraise the behavior and effect of the variables on health higher education; along with resulting projections of interest of this study.
Reviewing and proposing the means required to upgrade the level of internal efficiency in the health higher education system.
Modeling the links between job market demands and the quality of health higher education; and defining the required parameters for planning and designing the appropriate programs and curricula.
Executing analytical and diagnostic studies reviewing the existing situation as well as the projected demands of the health higher education. The particulars reviewed should include: admission capacity, admission policies, financing, curriculum and academic programs, majors planning and developing, academic advising, effectiveness of educational processes, educational technologies, quality of tutoring methods, training programs, management systems, etc. The purpose of these reviews is to isolate causes for challenges, phenomena, directions, and compliance with development needs both for now and in the future.
Analyzing similar health higher education systems in other countries that succeeded in synchronizing the offered training programs to the requirements of practicing the profession in fulfillment of job natures. The analysis should be augmented with standardized criteria for evaluating the compliance of the health higher education system with job market demands, and defining strengths and weaknesses, challenges, issues, and feasible strategies.
Forecasting trends of health education indices for the future in connection to job market and development needs, with a survey of successful experiences in this field in other nations.
Devising a mechanism and proposing execution means that guarantee the quantitative and qualitative close coordination between demand and supply from one side and the programs and output of health education from the other. That should also consider the current and expected requirements of the job market.
Investigating the role of private sector investment in the areas of vocational and specialized health education through colleges and training centers; and the means to support them and the conditions for accreditation.
Reviewing the development of hospital education programs for effective participation in training efforts, and the role of privately owned hospitals in broadening the base of specialized and coordinated health training.
Exploring avenues of undertaking scientific research in health related sciences; and enhancing the role of scientific research in developing health education and upgrading its compliance with the established standards of practicing the associated profession.
Reviewing and proposing means for raising the role of training in the technical development of health cadres in the Kingdom; and expanding the role of health colleges through the upgrading of levels of its interaction in the quantitative and qualitative development of human resources working in health care services.
Defining evaluation criteria with reference to total quality standards for human and financial resources, management, policies, students, curricula, majors, training, incentives system, academic advising, and professional accreditation.
Proposing the organizational hierarchy and infrastructure necessary to guarantee the effectiveness of health higher education system.
Adapting a mechanism for evaluation, professional accreditation, and academic supervision.
Extracting scientific and subjective conclusions; presenting applicable recommendations, and presenting the report.
This study should present a comprehensive report that includes the following:
An executive summary of the study.
A documentation of all reference information included in the study.
The conclusions of the study comprehensively analyzed to satisfy the general and specified objectives of the study.
The results of analytical studies conducted on similar models from different countries, showing success and/or failure causes.
Description of the required organizational structure and infrastructure of health higher education institutes in the Kingdom for both currently and in the future. The description should pinpoint strengths and weaknesses, available opportunities, diagnosed challenges, and the required success factors.
Means to upgrade the internal and external efficacy of the health higher education system and its compliance to development needs.
Mechanisms for comprehensive development of health higher education systems.
Academic and professional accreditation criteria.
Continuing health higher education upgrading mechanisms.
Means for enhancing the role of private sector investment in health higher education.
Proposals of various scenarios required to develop health higher education establishments in the Kingdom with specific reviews of important issues for discussion according to levels of importance; and strategic alternatives designed to achieve the objectives and purposes of the long-term higher education plan, their feasibility, and their applicability in connection to health higher education.
Models, criteria, forecasts, and trends of health education fields both locally and internationally.
Scientific conclusions and recommendations required to build a long term strategic plan for health higher education, as part of the strategic plan for university education in the Kingdom.
Determining the needed methods of execution, budgets, temporal plan, execution responsibilities, training requirements, changing demands, and other technical parameters that affect the performance of the admission and capacity operation.
Specifying a system for monitoring, control, benchmarking, and standardized indices.
