WINDS of change are blowing across the Kingdom’s educational front. From the emphasis on the arts and humanities in the past, there is a perceptible shift in the focus, especially after Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah ascended the throne.
The paradigm shift is best illustrated with the launch of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in the Eastern Province, where the emphasis in the curriculum is on science and technology, research and development. Similar will be the approach of Alfaisal University, which will spearhead its R & D program in tandem with the University of Cambridge in England and MIT in the US.
Even the King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh has announced plans to launch a major R & D program that will be carried out with the support of businessmen as part of KSU’s efforts to boost the Kingdom’s scientific and technological progress.
In a full-page advertisement in local newspapers, the university said its council has approved the “Research Chair” project in order to achieve the country’s strategic objectives that include reaching a high position in the areas of innovation, research and development to support its knowledge-based economy. Priority will be given to areas deemed relevant in the national context.
Fund allocations for research projects at Saudi universities have been hiked 20 times to SR1.75 billion, according to Prince Turki ibn Saud, chairman of the Supervising Committee for Strategic and Advanced Technologies and vice president of the King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Riyadh. “The fund will help universities to finance their strategic technological projects during the next four years,” the prince said. Currently, the Kingdom’s allocation for R & D is less than 0.5 percent of its GDP.
Prince Turki said the committee, which met recently at KACST, had decided to provide attractive remunerations to researchers in order to encourage them to complete their projects at universities and research centers. He said the fund allocations were made in accordance with the projects presented by different universities.
Besides stepping up the research grants, scholarships for 1,000 Saudi doctors and technicians have also been approved to enable them to pursue higher studies. At another level, steps are being taken at the lower rungs of the educational ladder to fine-tune the academic system and bring it in line with the new ethos that is being created in the institutions of higher learning.
To this end, the Ministry of Education is streamlining the curriculum of the higher secondary schools to sharpen the focus on the teaching of mathematics, science and computer education, while telescoping Saudi history and geography into a single textbook. Arabic and Islamic studies textbooks will also be revamped into a condensed version in order to free up more time for science teaching.
The ministry’s annual budget allocation for scholarships will be increased for sending more medical staff to advanced countries for higher studies and training.
The Health Ministry has so far sent 510 medical staff including 66 women from different parts of the Kingdom this year to specialize in areas required by the health sector. They have been sent to 15 countries including the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Austria, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Holland and Egypt. It also sent 1,058 doctors to universities within the Kingdom.
Earlier this year, King Abdullah allocated SR10 billion for a major scholarship program named after him to support more than 18,000 Saudis studying at American, European and Asian universities. He also agreed to increase the remunerations paid to the family of a scholarship winner.
The program will now cover four children instead of two and the third and fourth child will get SR10,000 each. The state will also pay for the students’ entry visas. King Abdullah earlier approved a 15 percent rise in monthly stipends given to Saudi students who go abroad for higher studies. Measures have also been taken to solve the problem faced by some students as a result of exchange rate fluctuations.
Two secondary schools and two middle schools in North Jeddah will also apply a new technique called the Comprehensive Developmental Project that would merge a number of schoolbooks and subjects into one course. Computer science will be introduced as a new subject in elementary and middle school levels and, according to Lamia Al-Haj, head of the Curriculum Development Department at the Ministry of Education in Jeddah, computing courses might be added to higher classes later.
Heralding a paradigm shift, King Saud University placed an ad in Arabic newspapers which said: “We call upon princes, princesses, businessmen and women, banks and companies to finance research chairs in areas such as medicine, pharmacology, engineering, science, computer science, architecture, agriculture, food, water, gas, oil, economy, business administration, law, political, information, society and private education.”
It requests individuals to contribute SR2 million in the first year and SR1 million annually for three or more years, while companies and banks have been asked to contribute SR4 million in the first year and SR2 million annually for three years or more. The university offers a number of benefits to the donors. The chair will be named after the contributor and his or her name will be placed on a golden plaque, and on the chair’s workshop and all published research works.
“Priority will be given to the contributor in making use of the research and consultancy services of the chair,” the university said. It will make use of the fund to forge alliances with leading universities and research centers in the world to develop knowledge-based economies. It will also contribute to the establishment of other research and development centers. “We have allocated SR85 million for infrastructure facilities,” it added.
In a pioneering move, KSU will also make use of the services of well-known scientists including Nobel Prize and King Faisal Prize winners for the program, which will be monitored by a board of trustees consisting of donors and international experts. Thirty percent of the funds will be used for the university’s endowment property.
The university’s project is significant as the Kingdom currently spends only 0.50 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), on research. King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) recently disclosed the government’s plan to spend over SR32 billion ($8.6 billion) on R & D as part of its 20-year National Science and Technology Plan.
“The allocation represents 2.5 percent of the Kingdom’s GDP of SR1.3 trillion ($347 billion), up from 0.25-0.50 percent at present,” said the then KACST President Dr. Saleh Al-Athel in a recent statement.
He added that the government would install in the near future the so-called “technology incubators” at five Saudi universities. Buildings for the project, costing SR15 million each, will be established at KSU, the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Dhahran), the King Faisal University (Dammam), the King Abdul Aziz University (Jeddah) and the King Khaled University (Abha).
KSU seemed to be taking the cue from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the French Institut Français Du Pétrole (IFP) which will collaborate on research programs, graduate education and technological development for the benefit of their respective countries.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Nadhmi A. Al-Nasr, interim president of KAUST, and Olivier Appert, chairman and chief executive officer of IFP, recently to work jointly on transport energies and materials as well as on joint efforts to explore innovative solutions for cleaner and sustainable energies and materials.
KAUST and IFP will also collaborate in accepting graduate students for agreed upon terms to do course work or specific research on IFP’s premises. Both institutions would concentrate on research in carbon capture, clean fuels, catalysis, polymers and chemical engineering modeling.
The MOU also calls for KAUST and IFP to publicize the results of their research before the scientific community and to make definitive agreements on matters concerning intellectual property rights and other commercial or legal aspects of their cooperative programs.
KAUST has also underlined its commitment to create an optimal learning environment for a diverse community of scholars and researchers from around the world, Al-Nasr said. “I am glad that IFP is going to contribute to the success of this ambitious project of a university and scientific center dedicated to research and education. We will be able to let KAUST benefit from our know-how in the fields of research, development and training. This collaboration will strengthen the existing ties between Saudi Arabia and IFP,” said Appert.
Both institutions will collaborate on the design, construction and initial operation of research centers and laboratory facilities; cooperate on research projects; hold scientific and technical meetings on topics of mutual interest; exchange scientific, technical and administrative staff; create synergy between the respective organization’s facilities and instruments; exchange information on research and engineering in energy sciences; and undertake other joint activities.
KAUST also went into partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in the United States to undertake global collaborative research program.
“We treasure our relationship with Woods Hole not only because it is our first formal collaboration with a world-class research institution, but also because it will yield new discoveries from the Red Sea and enrich the minds of future scientists from around the world. KAUST will contribute to global scientific and technological advancement by bringing the world to the Kingdom and vice versa,” said Nadhmi Al-Nasr, interim president of KAUST.
“We are excited to embark on this new collaborative research program with KAUST,” said Dr. Laurence Madin, WHOI director of research. “The research programs will increase our fundamental understanding of the ocean and its ecosystems in this important part of the world, and should prove valuable to Saudi environmental resource managers.”
The university expects to conclude as many as four collaborations with leading institutions in other fields. A substantial grant program for individual investigators and centers around the world and a student scholarship program will also be launched.
The KAUST is being built as an international, graduate-level research university dedicated to inspiring a new era of scientific achievement in the Kingdom that will also benefit the region and the world. KAUST is the realization of a decades-long vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. Its core campus, located on more than 36 million square meters on the Red Sea near Rabigh -- about 80 kilometers north of Jeddah -- is set to open in September 2009.
The Memorandum of Understanding signed by WHOI and KAUST creates three initial areas of research at KAUST: Coral reefs, coastal hydrography, and fisheries and aquaculture. WHOI will also provide consultation on the design of laboratory support, and dock facilities for the KAUST Marine and Ocean Research Center. It will provide opportunities for advanced research on the Red Sea oceanography and marine life.
The proposed coral reef systems research project will focus on corals and reef fishes and provide critical information for the protection and sustainable use of coral reef ecosystems along the Saudi coast in the northern and central Red Sea. The project will assess a range of threats to coral reef health and identify regional environmental stress factors that make the reefs susceptible to disease, bleaching and death.
The goal of the proposed WHOI-KAUST three-year fisheries and aquaculture project will be to develop an integrated bio-economic model of the Red Sea along the Kingdom’s coastline that describes the dynamic relationships among fish stocks and the fisheries that harvest them. By tracing out the biological and economic effects of alternative fishery policies, such a model provides support for resource managers.
The proposed coastal hydrographic and circulation project will establish a suite of observational and modeling activities that will provide the first comprehensive description of the physical oceanography in the Red Sea. This research will also support studies of coral reef ecology and provide a baseline for long-term monitoring of the coastal environment.
The Ministry of Higher Education has also embarked on an expansion program with its decision to establish in the near future 15 new colleges, including two medical colleges, in Riyadh and Al-Kharj and an institute of tourism and a nanotechnology center in Jeddah.
Approval has also been given for a center of contemporary Islamic studies and cultural dialogue at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University and four colleges at King Saud University. Three new colleges for science; computer science and business administration will be set up in the Women’s University in Riyadh.
These comprehensive measures are expected to go a long way in boosting the level of higher education in the Kingdom. Such a numerical expansion, however, should move in tandem with the qualitative leap which the new institutions of higher learning represent. This means setting up more university preparatory programs in areas where such high-tech universities are being established to groom students graduating from government schools. Without a high standard of education tailored to the market needs, the Saudization drive will not make a significant dent into the unemployment problem.
