JEDDAH, 30 November 2002 — Seven new community colleges will be opened in different regions next year as part of the Education Ministry’s efforts to expand educational and training facilities to all parts of the Kingdom, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday.

Khaled Al-Sultan, undersecretary at the Ministry of Higher Education, said six of the colleges will be in Riyadh, Najran, Baha, Alkharj, Jeddah and Dammam — cities with the large numbers of secondary school graduates waiting for higher education facilities. The colleges are also expected to ease the pressure on the universities.

The basic considerations for the choice of locations for the new colleges are regional requirements and the number of male and female secondary school graduates at a given region and lack of room in existing institutions to accommodate more students, Sultan said. The ministry is also keen on a reasonable distribution of the number of students of higher education in all parts of the Kingdom so that the students in their own respective regions can serve in the same regions after completion of studies.

The ministry intends to open more such colleges with the aim of giving two to three years of training in disciplines which are in demand in the local employment market, Sultan said.

He added that all the specializations in the colleges were launched after detailed study and consultations with private investors, local chamber of commerce and industry, and the Ministry of Civil Service. The focus will always be on specializations and training needed by the private sector. No special stress is given to the government sector as its opportunities are limited.

The official also pointed out that the number of medical colleges have been doubled from four over the past four years. The new medical colleges are situated in Qassim, Ahsa, Jizan and Madinah. The specializations in these colleges include dental medicine and applied medical sciences as the demand for graduates in these fields is high.

In some of the colleges special stress is given to topics such as engineering, accounting and business administration.

The official also projected the total number of both men and women students expected to enroll for higher education this year at 160,000.