Al-Anqari noted that the conference aims to become an international meeting point to enhance collective cooperation and build partnerships between Saudi higher education institutions and their international counterparts.

“The exhibition has developed from an idea in the past to a real cultural vessel where students and teachers from local, regional and international educational institutions meet,” said Al-Anqari.

The minister indicated that the Kingdom's strategy for higher education springs from understanding this field's role in the development factors and the challenges it faces in the world of communication and information revolution.

“The Kingdom, therefore, started executing a 25-year strategic plan to develop higher education and turn it into a high level system that achieves recognition and respect both regionally and internationally,” said Al-Anqari, pointing out that higher education budget was tripled during the last five years to occupy 12 percent of the Kingdom's SR600 billion general budget.

Increasing the universities' capacities is one of the major steps the Kingdom is taking, said Al-Anqari, as the youth represent 60 percent of the population. The universities’ numbers jumped from eight with 200 colleges 10 years ago to 32 government and private universities with more than 600 colleges this year. There are more than 1.5 million students in the higher education system, including those studying abroad under the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program, pointed out Al-Anqari, adding that the rate of university attendance has increased from 18 percent to 43 percent over the past 10 years, which surpasses the international rate of 33.8 percent.

“We are expecting to reach 50 percent by 2020,” said Al-Anqari.

During the last four decades, the number of girls joining the educational system has increased from seven girls in 1970 to more than 700,000 this year, representing 60 percent of the total students in the higher education system, said Al-Anqari.  

In a speech given at the event, Cornell University President David Skorton said the role of partnerships in the field of education builds bridges between cultures to serve peace in the world and serve humanity.