JEDDAH — If the talented young women at Jeddah’s Dar Al-Hekma College seek a role model, they don’t need to look much farther than their college dean, Dr. Suhair H. Al-Qurashi. A tireless promoter of education, she has created a group of competent, entrepreneurial women who are showing Saudi society that nothing will stop them.
Dr. Al-Qurashi has been involved with the college since the planning stages, serving as deputy project manager before it opened in 1999 when she took on her present role. She holds three advanced degrees, including a doctorate and a masters in education from Cambridge. Perhaps as important is her bachelor’s degree in business administration, as Dar Al-Hekma graduates are shaking up the business world with their acumen and high-quality training.
“Dar Al-Hekma from the beginning had in mind a college designed on areas of specialization that contribute to the job market and are designed to assist the business side of Saudi Arabia’s development as well as to contribute to the intellectual building of the country,” Dr. Al-Qurashi said in an exclusive interview. “Before launching the college, we did a survey of high schools in the Western Region and then picked the most needed or desired majors. We also conducted a survey of market requirements in order to choose the specializations that match the needs of the job market.”
Dr. Al-Qurashi says that the time for women to become a powerful economic force has come. “I think that the opportunities are greater than ever for women in the job market,” she said. “The acceptance of women’s role in society is growing. Women are being given opportunities and space to prove themselves. I think they are being supported by their male counterparts in being accepted as equals in the job market. So you have men and women doing all kinds of jobs.”
For men who scoff at the abilities of women, it may be a rude awakening. “Of course I don’t want to sound feminist in my comments, but some women actually are doing a better job in certain fields because they have to prove themselves,” she said. “That also puts added pressure on a woman because she wants to prove herself all the time — to do an excellent job, be able to maintain her career and be able to achieve something tangible. She always takes that burden on herself and with that burden can come success because it springs from hard work and only through hard work and commitment can you achieve success. Nothing comes easy, and this is also producing a positive effect on the performance of their male counterparts. They are being challenged. There is competition. That is a very, very healthy sign. With true competition comes greater opportunity and better performance.”
Dr. Al-Qurashi says Dar Al-Hekma girls also have another thing going for them and that is ambition. If they encounter barriers, they move around them. “I think a significant reason for college’s success has been the stress on the entrepreneurial skills needed in the job market. Being simply employed is different from being able to create one’s own job and this has been our contribution. Many of our graduates start their own businesses and so they become job creators. I think we had that in mind from the beginning, and we encouraged it because the training given to students is personal career development — how to be able to design your own system, how to carry the image of a balanced person, a woman caring for her family, caring for her society: All that is incorporated into our vision.”
Dr. Al-Qurashi is the founding member and president of the Jeddah Health Care Quality Club, a member of the American National Association of Health Care Quality Professionals and a member of the International Society for Quality Assurance in Health Care (ISQA). The college has a nursing program in place, awaiting young women to overcome the social condescension against what is a necessary and vital profession. “Nursing has been introduced at the college to give service back to the community,” she said. “Of course, the admissions are not very high, but we are keeping our commitment to it because it is a much-needed program for the country.”
One pioneering field of study with no shortage of applicants is the college’s design program. “This is the most successful and unique program because it is the first in the Kingdom,” said Dr. Al-Qurashi. “This is the only school that actually offers Graphic Design as a subject.” The designers are in great demand at advertising agencies where their creative sensibilities which are attuned to the Saudi market translate into riyals. The college is trying to make its design program even more attractive. “We do gap analyses, and try to develop strategies to bridge those gaps,” she said. “Through curriculum review we are able to see other needs that are not being met. In Graphic Design, for example, we have identified Animation as something to introduce.”
Dr. Al-Qurashi notes that the college will continue to give Dar Al-Hekma girls every conceivable edge that it can. “I think more collaboration through research is needed,” she said. “More speakers in forums, in educational forums, should be encouraged because they teach students about experiences and the lessons they can learn from successful businesswomen and men. We have invited many speakers to share their visions and the difficulties they encountered and what they would do were they given a second chance.”
She said current college plans go all the way to 2030, and if you think the college is going to remain the same, you are mistaken. “One of the important goals we are trying to achieve is launching the School for Innovative Science and Technology in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),” she said, alluding to a recent visit to India. “The main focus of the visit to India was to expose the students and expose the IIT to the type of students we have. So we interacted with their students and, strangely enough, most of the students at the IIT we visited were women.”
It could happen here. “We want to open up the science and technology sector to women,” she said. “There is already collaboration going on with IIT to develop the program. It will not be a joint degree. We are still in the negotiating stages. The idea is to provide an accelerated degree program in science and technology by taking the current science-degree holders and giving them an in-depth look at the latest technology available and then throw them with other science and technology graduates. What you do is you pump them into society in order to achieve the vision of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, which is to create a knowledge-based society within 10 years.”
Usually, an interview focuses on a person’s life; with Dr. Al-Qurashi, Dar Al-Hekma is her life, and the number of Dar Al-Hekma girls who are already making a difference is proof of her commitment to creating the Saudi Arabia of the future. “I think the secret at Dar Al-Hekma is the energy and the passion,” she said. “We are very passionate about achieving our goals, and the students leave us as passionate, lifelong learners. They work hard to achieve the vision that we put forward of serving their families, society, humanity, and their country in hopes of pleasing the Creator. That is our main goal. If you take every graduate who has either taken the path of more study or started a career or the students who have taken the option of working in companies, it is a very impressive number. All of these are distinguished and exceptional women. Women who will be leaders — some who already are leaders in the fields they have chosen. They are making contributions now. In the years to come, I don’t think there will be a limit to what these women will be able to accomplish and will have accomplished.”