JEDDAH, 15 March 2007 — The launch of the Distance Education Program at King Abdulaziz University yesterday heralds a new era in higher education in the Kingdom. “We are the first university in the Kingdom to introduce distance education,” said Dr. Tariq Fouad Hamdi, dean of the Faculty for Distance Education.
He said the program, which was officially inaugurated by professor Usama S. Tayyib, president of the university, plans to receive 10,000 students in its first academic year (2007-2008). At present the faculty has no plan to admit expatriate students. “We have to get approval from the Ministry of Higher Education in order to accept expatriate students,” he told Arab News.
Hamdi also disclosed plans to launch an educational channel in support of the program. “The project is ready and we are awaiting approval from higher authorities,” he said, adding that the channel would bring about a qualitative change in the Kingdom’s distance education. The faculty is now in the process of developing a digital library and virtual classrooms.
Distance education is now available in only two faculties: The Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Administration which offer four-year courses in English language, Islamic studies, history, Arabic, social science, psychology, public administration and business administration. “We have developed 60 courses for these eight majors,” Dr. Hamdi said. The program will be applied later to other faculties such as engineering and medicine.
The distance education program, which is introduced for the first time in the Kingdom, will solve the problem of insufficient space faced by the country’s institutions of higher learning. Students can attend this program through the Internet and other electronic devices without being present in the classroom. The faculty has already carried out an experimental operation of the program.
The faculty is now targeting secondary school graduates who fail to win seats at universities. “We have already trained more than 125 teachers, including females, to start the program,” Hamdi said. “There are good prospects for students attending distance education program,” he said. Students applying for distance education must have obtained at least a 75 percent mark and pass an aptitude test. The university will charge SR3,000 ($800) for each semester.
