JEDDAH, 22 January 2008 — The ninth Jeddah Economic Forum (JEF) will focus on involving students in academic and economic interaction, leading educators said.
Effat College, in cooperation with Duke University, designed the programs that will be discussed at JEF 2008, as Haifa Jamalallail, dean of Effat College, and Jane Sommers-Kelly, managing director at Duke University, said at a press conference held at the college yesterday.
The press conference was also attended by Sami Bahrawi, JEF president, and Ghazi Bin Zagr, member of the academic team of JEF.
Duke University has been a partner of Effat College for several years now. “Duke is delighted to continue its partnership with Effat College. Our role is to largely focus on designing the schedule of the forum so that the impact of the forum would be as great as possible,” Sommers-Kelly said. “We listened to the programs proposed by our partners and decided which of them will be most effective programs, different and interactive.”
The participants will not only be listening, they will be dialoguing and absorbing information mentioned during the lectures and discussions.
She said her university follows a strategy that was proven effective due to a research. If you just listen in a conference, you only remember five percent of the information you heard. If you practice and apply what is discussed through dialogue, you remember 50 percent or more. If you teach or do back at the job, you remember closer to 80 or 90 percent.
“We are trying to let the forum’s participants to having more learning and more understanding and more of a passionate intake this year,” Sommers-Kelly said.
Jamalallail said the basic role of Effat College in JEF this year is to attract the academic partner, Duke University, in addition to participating students which will be a new initiative at the forum this year.
This year, a number of students from Duke University will come to Jeddah two weeks before the forum to disseminate their knowledge with students in Saudi universities and colleges.
“Students who wish to come to the forum are four times more than the number we decided on. They are very excited to know more about the forum and the country,” Sommers-Kelly said, without disclosing the number of students yet.
The new initiative will show the academic and economic cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the US within the limits of the theme of this year’s forum. Students will express their views in different methods, Jamalallail said.