JEDDAH, 11 December 2004 — Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed will open the Taif Private University in February. He will also award degrees to 150 students who have graduated from Al-Sibae Nursing Institute in the city.
The university will have four colleges in the first phase — College of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Health Administration and College of Health Information Management, according to Dr. Zuhair ibn Ahmed Al-Sibae, its general supervisor.
The first phase of the project is expected to cost SR220 million. Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, had donated SR10 million for the project’s feasibility study.
“We have made plans for the colleges in cooperation with the American University of Arizona and UNESCO and have presented its curriculum to the Ministry of Higher Education for approval,” Sibae said.
The university is coming up in a 250,000 square-meter area south of the sports stadium in Hawiya. “This is an important project initiated by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah to create more educational opportunities for Saudi students,” Sibae said.
The Council of Ministers has approved in principle a proposal to establish two private universities by converting Prince Sultan Private College and clubbing the private colleges of King Faisal Charitable Foundation.
Plans are also under way to open 38 new colleges both in the private and government sectors with the focus on specializations required by the job market.
The government gives top priority to education and manpower development. It allocated more than SR70 billion, or a quarter of the 2005 fiscal budget, to the sector.
