RIYADH: Minister of Higher Education Dr. Khaled Al-Anqari opened the International Exhibition for Higher Education on Monday.
More than 300 universities and colleges from all over the world are participating in this first-time event in the Kingdom. They hope to attract Saudi students to study with them. In recent years a total of 80,000 students have benefited from government scholarships. The government recently announced that it would extend the King Abdullah Scholarship program another five years. Scholarships can be worth as much as SR1 million per course.
“Through this event, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) seeks to realize a specific shift in Saudi universities and support them to be international pioneers in different aspects and specializations,” he said at the opening of the four-day exhibition at the Riyadh International Exhibition Center. Al-Anqari said that it had all been made possible by the support of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation.
The exhibition is the fruit of continuous efforts made by the MOHE in Saudi Arabia to advance the quality of higher education through creating sufficient opportunities for all segments of society. It will focus on introducing the best universities in the world as well as becoming a point of contact with these institutions.
Fifty-three speakers from 24 countries are participating and more than six international educational organizations as well. The speakers will address such issues as higher education in the age of globalization, scientific research, community development, equal opportunities in higher education, building a knowledge society and the efforts of international education associations in developing higher education.
Al-Anqari added that the ministry supported the creation of research excellence centers in a number of universities, implemented the project for developing the creativity and excellence of members and faculties at the universities, twinning programs with famous universities, development of electronic databases, and data updating for universities, including facilitating knowledge access channels through electronic gates and other related programs and projects.
Al-Anqari also said, “The international pioneering program will contribute to supporting Saudi universities and to bringing success to their programs and plans aimed at increasing research and specialized studies.”
Ali S. Al-Attiyah, deputy minister of higher education and chairman of the organizing committee, also spoke along with Jo Ritzen, president of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who spoke on behalf of the participating universities. A documentary film on higher education in the Kingdom was also shown.
Educators and administrators from the Kingdom as well as from abroad attended the opening day of the exhibition. Three hundred-fifty booths are on a 13,500 sq. meter-space inside the exhibition center. The booths belong to embassies and universities in the Kingdom and other countries such as the United Kingdom, the US, Canada, India, South Africa, Poland and Australia. Both Saudi and foreign educators expressed appreciation of the intensive preparations for the fair.
“I am impressed by turnout of educators — local and foreign — for this event,” said Hamzah A. Baitalmal of the King Saud University.
