RIYADH, 23 January 2008 — King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh has entered into a strategic partnership with a Zurich-based medical group to develop a predoctoral curriculum for its dental undergraduates. An agreement was signed between professor Abdulaziz Al-Ruwais, vice rector of KSU, and Robert Gottlander, executive vice president of Nobel Biocare, at KSU’s auditorium yesterday.
“This is the first partnership with a university in the Middle East,” Gottlander said, adding that KSU was selected for the agreement because it has the Gulf region’s leading dental college.
KSU has now become the 20th academic institution to join Nobel Biocare’s university program.
“The peer-to-peer program provides latest scientific treatment expertise, clinical competency development, high-tech educational tools and support to academic institutions that aim to develop undergraduate curriculum,” Gottlander said.
Al-Ruwais said that the new partnership would help the dental college introduce new techniques into its curriculum.
“With such partnership, dental graduates at the KSU would be in a position to keep abreast of the latest advances in the field of dentistry,” he stressed.
Founded in 1975, the College of Dentistry has 550 graduates on roll. Al-Ruwais said the college enrolls 125 new students annually and 40 of them are females.
“There is a great demand for women dentists in the Kingdom... Saudi Aramco wants all our women graduates to be deployed in its company,” he said, adding that KSU could not comply with the request due to various reasons. So far the college has produced 1,500 graduates, the majority of which have obtained postgraduate degrees.
Speaking about the agreement, professor Abdullah Al-Yahya, dean at the College of Dentistry, said, “Nobel Biocare’s efforts in collaborating with the world of academia are unparalleled. We are looking forward to a mutually beneficial relationship that can bear fruit in the shape of a graduating dentist equipped with an even higher level of expertise in dental care.”
