A total of 1,400 Saudi students are set to leave for United Kingdom in September this year to pursue higher education under the King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP).

“This is going to be a massive program funded by the Saudi authorities. It would help Saudi students to continue their studies in world class educational institutions and colleges in the United Kingdom,” Jim Scarth, director of the British Council told Arab News on the eve of the queen’s birthday. “Since this decision, the British Council has worked closely with the Ministry of Higher Education advising them on the best placement methods.”

The director said the council arranged for the KASP director to meet representatives of more than 150 UK institutions at the Partnership Conference held in Edinburgh. “He gave a presentation on the various aspects of the scholarship program and answered questions posed by the UK representatives. KASP officials also visited several institutions in London to discuss arrangements for placing students.”

“The British Council is the UK’s international organization for educational opportunity and cultural relations. We are in Saudi Arabia to build mutually beneficial relationships between the peoples of our two Kingdoms and to increase appreciation for the UK’s creative ideas and achievements. We do this through our work in the fields of arts, education, English language and science,” the director said. “We opened in Saudi Arabia in Riyadh in 1967. We have offices in Jeddah (opened 1977) and Dammam (since 1984). We have 6 offices, 2 in each city (to provide separate centers for women). Some 6,000 Saudi students are currently based in Britain to pursue their higher education in various universities.

British Council provides a wide range of services in education, English language teaching and scholarships. It conducts English language classes at its centers in Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah and also offers counseling services to those interested in pursuing studies in Britain. Besides the services offered by the offices of the British Council, the director said that students and their parents could avail the services of educational agents who have been nominated by the council to offer counseling services.”

“These agents are trained by the council to offer their expertise in helping parents choose UK educational institutions according to their children’s aptitude and abilities, “ Scarth said, adding that they will not solicit any fees for their services since their payment is looked after by the respective institutions in Britain.

“Building inter-cultural dialogue between the British and Saudi communities is a key objective of the British Council. It is with this objective in view that we initiated the ‘Connecting Classrooms’ project a year ago. As the name suggests, the project aims at creating partnerships between Saudi Arabia and UK schools to enable young people develop an understanding of each other’s cultures.”

‘Connecting Classrooms’ creates a real-world learning environment, taking the students beyond the conventional education experience. Teachers get the opportunity to share ideas and resources with their counterparts from various parts of the globe.

Another motivating factor for the staff and students is the joint curriculum. This international study program allows schools to improve their own teaching methods. Teachers are exposed to a cross-cultural working environment and new methodologies that help boost their own professional skills.

The ‘Connecting Classrooms’ project, which is held annually, will again be held at the end of this year. Saudi schools were strongly represented at the ‘Connecting Classrooms’ project held in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain in November and December last year. The first part of the project began in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 25 with a two-day leadership seminar attended by school principals and vice principals. The second part, which was held in Bahrain from Dec. 2 to 4, introduced local schools to potential UK partner schools.

The leadership seminar was conducted by two ace leadership trainers — Francis Kinchington, a lecturer at Greenwich University and a committee member at the National College for Developing Head-Teachers in the UK, and Paul Andrews, a qualified leadership trainer. The Saudi school principals and vice principals, who attended the seminar, found the discussions most valuable and practical.

The contact seminar in Bahrain was equally successful. It provided an opportunity to prospective partner schools to interact face-to-face and develop useful academic relationships.

All in all, 24 schools from Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam participated in the project. They included Najd National Schools, Riyadh Schools, AlTarbia AlIslamia Schools, Dar AlUloom Schools, Olaya Schools, and Dar Asslam, AlSarh Schools, all from Riyadh; Dar El Fikr Schools, Dar El Rowad Schools, Al Anjal Schools, Jazeeart AlUloom Schools, Al Hamra Schools, and Al Majd Schools, all from Jeddah; and AlBassam Schools from Dammam.

Springboard Program

Springboard is a Women’s Self Development Program. It has been developed by Springboard Consultancy which is one of the UK’s leading training consultancies, specializing in personal and professional development and works globally. The program is a one-month award-winning personal and work development program for women. It is delivered by specially trained and licensed trainers around the world and has won many prestigious awards for quality and innovation, most notably a National Training Award from the UK government.

These programs are for women who know there is more to life and are seeking how to go about achieving it. Most Springboard participants are in various positions inside organizations whilst others are self-employed, unemployed or working in voluntary organizations. The program is specially tuned to suit all women.

It is for employers who want to develop their staff to their fullest potential and to give their staff opportunities to develop within the organization. And many international organizations have already used it, such as HSBC and the BBC. There is also an adapted version for the program used for university students and Cambridge University is one of those universities who use this for its undergraduate students.

The British Council delivers the Springboard programs in Saudi Arabia. We worked with a group of Saudi women academics to culturalize the Springboard materials and translate them into Arabic. Courses are run in Arabic. All the trainers are native speakers of Arabic. Since 2004, the council has trained more than 500 women and courses have been run in different locations: Chamber of Commerce, Al Faisal International Academy, and King Abdulaziz and his Companions Foundation for Gifted.

Council, NCAAA Workshop

The British Council and the Riyadh-based National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA) jointly organized a workshop on ‘Strategic Planning for Quality Improvement in an Institution’ in Riyadh from Oct. 29 to 31, 2007. The Saudi delegates to the workshop were from quality assurance departments of various higher education institutions. They were nominated by the NCAAA, which was set up in Saudi Arabia in 2004 as an independent body to raise the standards of higher education.

The three-day workshop, the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, discussed the two academic systems of the UK and Saudi Arabia. The 58 participants also discussed international quality assurance standards of the two countries.

The delegates further deliberated on the link between a university’s mission and the learning objectives of its curricula. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis pertaining to their institutions was also made.

The delegates also decided on several issues including the question of who should be involved in the preparation of the quality assurance plan; how and what stages they would be involved; and the advantages and disadvantages of ‘inclusive’ and ‘exclusive’ approaches to preparation. A significant outcome of the workshop was a suggestion to establish a network for quality assurance staff in Saudi higher education institutions so that information and best practices could be shared more easily among institutions.

Three other similar national workshops have been programmed for 2008, besides a regional workshop that is expected to include participants from the other GCC countries.

“These programs are in keeping with the British Council’s efforts to boost educational cooperation at all levels between the UK and other countries. The British Council in Saudi Arabia works closely with the NCAAA by offering the UK’s experience and supporting its mission to improve the quality of higher education.”

Recently, the Ministry of Education has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the British Council as part of its initiative to upgrade English-language courses, redesign textbooks and set up training programs for English language supervisors.

The director said that the ministry’s efforts to improve English teaching in government schools was in line with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s call to bring about a qualitative change in the country’s educational system to prepare the youth for the challenges of the 21st century.

A team of consultants from the British Council would work closely with the ministry in reviewing the contents of the Saudi English textbooks. The council will also set up a “cascade training” program under which British experts will train Saudi English language supervisors (both men and women), so that they could in turn pass on the benefit of the training program to some 30,000 English-language teachers working in government schools.