Assessing the alignment of university academic programs with the requirements of Saudi Arabia’s data and business analytics job market

Figures & data

Table 1. Classification of IS knowledge/skills.

Class	Category	Description
Technical Knowledge	1. Hardware	Mainframe, mini, and personal computers. Other devices such as storage devices, controllers, printers, and other peripherals plus networks.
	2. Software	Application systems, operating systems, packaged products (such as database, graphics, word processing), networking software and languages.
Business Knowledge	3. Business	Functional expertise (such as finance, marketing) and industry expertise (such as retail, mining).
	4. Management	General management skills including leadership, project management, planning, controlling, training, and organization.
	5. Social	Interpersonal skills, communication skills, personal motivation and ability to work independently
Systems Knowledge	6. Problem solving	Creative solutions, quantitative skills, analytical modeling, logical capabilities, deductive/inductive reasoning, innovation.
	7. Development methodology	Knowledge of systems development methodologies, systems approach, implementation issues, operations and maintenance issues, general development phases, documentation, and analysis/ design tools/techniques.

Adapted from Todd et al. (1995).

Table 2. Data/business knowledge/skills.

System Skill Class	Business Skill Class	Technical Skill Class
Development	Social	Software
Analysis Implementation/Testing Design Data Management Knowledge of Gen. Technology Gen. Knowledge of Development Knowledge of Dev. Methodologies Programming Operations/Maintenance Integration Documentation	Interpersonal Communication Self-Motivated	Programming Language Database/Data Warehouse OS/Platforms Gen. Knowledge of Software Packages Data Visualization
	Business	Architecture/Network
	Industry Specific Gen. Knowledge of Business Enterprise-wide Function Specific Electronic Business	Internet/LAN/WAN Networking & N/W Devices Cloud Computing Client-Server/Dist. computing General IS Architecture Network Security Ubiquitous Computing
		Mainframe/Legacy Systems
Problem Solving	Management	Hardware
Modeling Quantitative/Math/Statistics Analytical/Logical Thinking Creative/Innovative General Problem Solving Customer Oriented Adaptive/Flexible Strategic Thinking	General Management Organization Leadership Monitor & Control Planning Training Change Management Project Management	Devices/Printers/Storage Desktop/PC Server/Workstation Gen. Knowledge of Hardware

Adapted from Lee (2005).

Table 3. List of universities offering data/business analytics programs.

Name of university	Name of program	Level	Faculty/college/department	Number of courses
Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University	Master of Science (business analytics)	Master	Business Administration	16
King Saud University	Executive Master in Business Analytics	Master	Business Administration	12
Jouf University	Master of Science in Data Science	Master	College of Computer and Information Science	13
Saudi Electronic University	Bachelor of Data Science	Bachelor	College of Computing and Informatics	25
Saudi Electronic University-2	Master of Science in Data Science	Master	College of Computing and Informatics	11
Princess Nourah Bint Abdul Rahman University	Master of Science in Computing (Data Science)	Master	Computer and Information Sciences	10
University of Jeddah	Master of Data Science and Analytics	Master	Computer Science and Engineering	16
Islamic University of Madinah	Master of Science in Computer Science (Data Science)	Master	Faculty of Computer and Information Systems	33
Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University	Master of Data Science	Master	Information Systems	26
King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals-2	Master of Business Analytics	Master	Information Systems & Operations Management	22
King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals	Professional Master in Data Science & Analytics	Master	Mathematics and Statistics	9
Total				193

Figure 1. Variation in data/business analytics Course.

Figure 2. Location of data/business analytics jobs within the Kingdom by Percentage.

Table 4. Percentage of educational level requirements.

Degree	Percentage (n = 236)
Bachelor’s or a college degree or diploma	80%
Master’s or bachelor’s	8%
Master’s	4%
High school or diploma or certificate	5%
PhD or master’s degree	2%
General educational requirement	1%

Figure 3. The market’s knowledge and skill set requirements.

Figure 4. The extent of alignment between academic programs and market needs.

Figure 5. Data/business-related courses by category.

Figure 6. Data/business-related courses by category.

Todd, P. A., McKeen, J. D., & Gallupe, R. B. (1995). The evolution of IS job skills: A content analysis of IS job advertisements from 1970 to 1990. MIS Quarterly, 19(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/249709

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Lee, C. K. (2005). Analysis of skill requirements for systems analysts in Fortune 500 organizations. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 45(4), 84–92.

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar