Interesting. I would guess it's because they're cash rich but talent poor. A lot of good academics (in other words, Western educated ones) who would move to those countries to teach would be doing it for monetary reasons only.

They might be great research environments for all I know, but I'm sure the perception is that they are stifling, racist and ultimately dull places, filled with cronyism, nepotism and a high turnover for staff. Add to that the fact that unmarried couples can't legally be together in many of these shitholes, let alone gays, and the fact that women have shit rights in general, means that few genuinely driven and ambitious people would be willing to move there. This is bad, because the only academics worth anything are Western ones, with only a few exceptions.

I mean, you get the impression that the Westerners who move to these places are only planning to stay for say, half a decade at max. They're not going to put the effort in even if they're good at their jobs.

Funnily enough though, I was reading that a shitload of these Islamists and terrorist leaders are in fact educated. They go to some ME university and find they can't get a job afterwards, so get pissy and blame Satamerica. I think it's just how the system works -- the West is the best for universities, because universities and for that matter rational inquiry are Western things. Everything about modern institutional learning is Western: it's a hidden hegemony (read Adorno about this if you're curious). If you can't get Westerners, you're not going to get a good university.

>>1373080
Alright, because I was thinking of doing a semester abroad at one of these institutions. The thought behind this was that being a white Westerner who knows a lot about the culture and language would pay off greatly, working for the US government, or a multinational company or something. Do you have any advice?

>>1373098

I would recommend you do it, but only for learning Arabic. You won't get much cred for going to study in these places, I think. Why not try some Euro university?

>>1373189
I'm already studying at a Euro university. Not anything Arabic though, I'm in STEM.

I'm learning Arabic in my spare time, even though /biz/ tells me it's a fruitless pursuit. Still, it seems kind of cool to do a semester abroad at for example the King Saud University studying Arabic. I might do it.

>>1373203

Yeah sure sounds fun. I'd go for it man. Why not? If it doesn't cost you much.

>>1373221
Awesome dude.

>>1373061
rankings might be shit and based on research and not teaching stuff
is MIT really 1000x better than Croatian FER in teaching?

Their 1℅ educate their youth in western institutions and there really isn't demand for it from the sandnecks

>>1373203
never go to riyadh, find a university in jeddah or dammam. i heard really good things about a university in dammam i believe it's called KFUPM