History of Community Colleges in the Middle East and the United States of America: A Comparative Study

Since the dawn of the 20^th century, the United States started facing global economic challenges that threatened its rapid economic growth. Consequently, local and national leaders realized that highly skilled workforce was the key for the nation to be on solid ground and to ensure the continued economic development and fiscal fitness (American Association of Community Colleges, 2014). The pioneer leading advocates of junior colleges envisioned the establishment of a fairly new educational institution to bridge the gap between secondary school and four-year institutions to ensure access, affordability, and flexibility.
Inspired by this distinctively educational American innovation, educators in the Middle East adopted the idea to serve different educational purposes. This paper focuses on two Middle Eastern countries; Jordan and Saudi Arabia; as representatives of the Middle Eastern community colleges. The reason why these countries were chosen among other countries is that they represent two economic extremes of community colleges in the Middle East nowadays. Moreover, Jordan was chosen because the earliest dated community colleges in the Middle East started there, and Saudi Arabia was chosen due to the complicated structure community colleges came to be. Thus, the characteristics of these institutions will be described in these two countries and then compared to their peers in the United States of America.
Community Colleges in the U.S.A: Historical Profile