RIYADH, 20 January 2004 — The Kingdom’s first private college of dentistry and pharmacy will open on Feb. 7. The aim is to provide Saudi professionals in a field now dominated by expatriates.

“A novel feature of the SR250 million project is that all the investors are academics who own some 20 polyclinics in Riyadh. This will give our students first-hand knowledge of how polyclinics work,” Dr. Ali R. Al-Shammary, one of the college owners, told Arab News.

A complete hospital will also be built on the premises in order to meet the requirements for a university which is the eventual goal of the founders. Dr. Al-Shammary said the project was conceived by Professor Abdullah Al-Shammary, the first dean of the Dental College at King Saud University. He said the college would serve as the nucleus of a future university and would offer courses in all medical branches.

The medium of instruction will be English and admission is open to both Saudis and non-Saudis. “Registration of students has begun and the response is highly encouraging,” Dr. Al-Shammary said.

Citing an official study that the Kingdom would be able to meet only 40 percent of its needs in medical education by 2020, Dr. Al-Shamamry pointed out that there was an acute shortage of facilities for medical education in the country.

According to economist Dr. Ihsan Bu Hulaigah, a member of the Shoura Council, the number of Saudi doctors in the medical sector is only 13 percent.

“Of the total number of university graduates, the specializations that we actually need represent a very low percentage — 4 percent engineering graduates, 5 percent in accountancy and management and two percent in the medical field,” he said.

Dr. Al-Shammary said the college would operate on a new philosophy, with emphasis on teamwork, thinking and teaching. The idea is to develop a new mindset among students and stimulate their thinking processes. A special course will be incorporated into the college curriculum to instill new values among students.

Highly qualified professors are being recruited to maintain the standard of education at the college which will also have its own website for hosting lectures and facilitating interaction between the college and its counterparts in other countries.