RIYADH, 14 July 2005 — Besides the excellent political and economic relations between Saudi Arabia and France, the cultural section of the French Embassy promotes educational, scientific and technical exchanges between Riyadh and Paris.
In a latest development, the French Embassy has selected a group of Saudi students to follow graduate courses in political science beginning September this year.
“These students will be studying in a new department meant for political science with special emphasis on Middle East politics,” Yann La Camera, charge de mission of the Cultural Section of the embassy, told Arab News. The new department, which will function under the Paris School of Politics, is located in Menton, South of France. These students will join other foreign students to pursue their studies in political science relevant to their region.
The Saudi-French Center, which was established in 1973, has branches in Riyadh, Jeddah and Alkhobar. It offers various level courses in learning French as foreign language. These centers are open to men and women among Saudis and expatriates in the Kingdom. More than 1,500 students are currently enrolled in these courses in the three major cities.” Seventy percent of them are Saudis,” Yann said, adding that these courses are helpful for Saudi students to pursue higher studies in France. A large number of Saudi students who have taken up these courses are in various universities and colleges, pursuing courses in medicine, engineering, law, arts, and commerce.
Each year, the French Embassy offers 32 French language students from King Saud University (KSU) and King Abdul Aziz University (KAAU) a one-month summer scholarship aiming at improving their proficiency in French. The training usually takes place at the linguistic institutes of Besançon, Dijon, Grenoble, Lyon, Pau and Perpignan Universities in France. Every year, four teachers from KSU and KAAU receive a one-month summer grant to improve their teaching skills in a specialized French language institute such as Lyon 2 University.
The French government also offers one-year scholarships ever year to the best postgraduate students from the two Saudi universities, enabling them to obtain a master’s degree in France.
French Information Centers, called “Espaces EduFrance” (www.edufrance.fr), have been set up in Riyadh and Jeddah to introduce the French education system to Saudi students willing to pursue their studies abroad.
These centers advise and assist students and scholarship holders in the administrative process. They offer an all-inclusive program providing assistance in applying for French universities, obtaining a visa and getting an accommodation. Thus, several Saudi students have the opportunity to go soon to France to pursue postgraduate studies in the fields of medicine, engineering, business or politics.
Several programs with bilingual teaching (French and English) have been set up between Saudi and French universities to facilitate access to the most prestigious French institutions for Saudi students.
They include major engineering schools such as Ecole des Mines, Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées, main business schools and Paris School of political science (IEP).
In the field of archeaology, a Saudi-French team led by Professor Jean-Marie Dentzer, member of the French “Academie des inscriptions et belles lettres,” and Dr. Laila Nehme, an archaeologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), have been working for three years on the Mada’in Saleh Nabatean Site in the northwestern part of Saudi Arabia, in cooperation with the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums.
This research program has produced interesting results and accordingly a comprehensive archeological and epigraphic GIS Atlas of the site will be published shortly. The medical cooperation with Saudi Arabia is one of the priorities of France whose healthcare system was ranked No.1 in the world by the World Health Organization. Since 2001, the French SAMU and ACODESS have been working with the Saudi Red Crescent Society to improve the pre-hospital emergency medical services of the Kingdom. French experts drew the guidelines to settle the first Air Medical Services of the Kingdom. These new services, which were first implemented in Makkah region, also cater to the needs of the local population.
The le Musee du Louvre (Museum) is planning to establish a department of Islamic Arts in Paris. It has sought the support and assistance of the Saudi National Museum to implement the project successfully. The proposed state-of -the-art facility is geared to provide information on various aspects of Islamic culture and civilization to the Western world. Louvre collections will be displayed at a show in Riyadh in the near future.
In agronomy, the two main French agronomy research organizations, CIRAD and INRA, are working with King Abdul Aziz City For Science and Technology to set up a research program aimed at fighting the red palm weevil, an insect that has been destroying palm trees plantations for the last 15 years. The current methods used to fight this pest seem indeed to have reached a deadlock and did not stop its spreading. The Remote Sensing Water Resources Research Program is another example of the Saudi-French research cooperation. The program between the Space Research Institute of King Abdul Aziz University for Science and Technology (KACST) and Paris VI University aims at developing new techniques to detect underground water resources using satellite photographs.
Each year, the CFS grants four students one-month scholarship to improve their French. The training takes place at the linguistic institute of Lyon 2 University, in France.
Periodically, the French mission also organizes cultural events such as music concerts, classical music programs, Arabic cultural programs, conferences and lectures at the embassy premises. Professor Dominique Chevalier, an eminent French scholar was in Riyadh in February this year to deliver a lecture on Relationship between the European Union and GCC. Under this program, Al-Kindi, Syrian/French Musical Group, entertained the Riyadh audience with their popular numbers in Arabic and French recently. There are three French International Schools in Riyadh, Jeddah and Alkhobar that follow French syllabus for French nationals and other interested students.