JEDDAH, 20 August 2004 — Saudi universities will increase student intake by 15 to 20 percent this academic year especially for specializations required by the labor market, according to Dr. Muhammad Al-Saleh, secretary-general of the Higher Education Council (HEC).
“The council is also reviewing the subjects being taught at women’s colleges and thinking of adding new specializations that are actually required,” Al-Eqtisadiah daily quoted Saleh as saying.
There are 72 women’s colleges with an estimated 195,000 students on their rolls, he said.
Saleh said the HEC is in the process of restructuring university courses.
“There are plans to reduce seats for certain courses, such as social sciences and humanities,” he said, adding that some universities have already stopped admission to such courses.
More seats will be allocated to medicine, pharmacology, engineering and languages, he pointed out. “The HEC has decided establish more colleges and departments for science subjects,” he added.
The Council of Ministers has decided to bring women’s colleges under the Higher Education Ministry as part of the government’s efforts to expand them. There are eight government universities in the Kingdom, two of them located in Riyadh and one each in Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah, Dammam, Dhahran and Abha. These universities have a total of 76 colleges with over 239,000 students.
The government has approved the establishment of two private universities. One of them is an affiliate of Riyadh Charitable Foundation for Sciences, which owns Prince Sultan Private College for Boys and Prince Sultan Private College for Girls in Riyadh as well as Prince Sultan Private College for Dentistry in Riyadh.
The other university is Dar Al-Faisal, an affiliate of King Faisal Charitable Foundation, which owns Effat College in Jeddah and Prince Sultan College for Tourism and Hotel Management in Abha.
Plans Under Way for e-University
Plans are under way to launch an electronic university on the Internet to spread the message of Islam, according to Dr. Saleh ibn Abdullah Al-Aboud, rector of the Islamic University in Madinah.
Some 60 students have been assigned to work for the electronic university in the first phase, Aboud said, adding that more students would be involved later. Monthly spending on the project is estimated at SR100,000.
“The project aims at strengthening Madinah University’s role in spreading Islamic teachings utilizing the knowledge and talents of its graduates who belong to nearly 200 nationalities,” Okaz daily quoted Aboud as saying.
The project includes an electronic institute to teach non-Arabs the Arabic language and an electronic library to promote books, research papers and theses published by the university, Aboud said. The university’s website will have a database on scientific theses, university’s faculty and graduates as well as various Islamic organizations and institutions.
There will be special sections for translation and answering questions related to Shariah in addition to forums to exchange views and opinions.
The Madinah university has allocated SR3 million from its annual budget for the project, of which SR1.8 million will be set aside for salaries, SR600,000 to contributors and SR600,000 for the purchase of equipment.
