“We hope that our universities will showcase the quality of education in Malaysia and attract more Saudi students to come to our country to study,” Al-Saggaf told Arab News in an interview at the Malaysian Embassy in the capital.

He said at present there are nearly 3,000 Saudi students taking up different courses in Malaysia under the King Abdullah Scholarship Program.

The universities include the University of Malaya, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Multimedia University, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, International Islamic University Malaysia, and Universiti Teknologi Petronas.

Al-Saggaf, who was also a journalist before entering the diplomatic service, said some of the students are pursuing graduate studies in these universities for their doctoral and Master’s degrees while others are enrolled in engineering, information technology, computer programming, among others.

“Malaysia has its own share of foreign students taking up various degree programs in the country and that this only shows that Malaysian universities are in a league of their own and could compare with the world’s best,” said Al-Saggaf, who received his bachelor’s degree in Islamic Shariah from Madinah Islamic University in 1973.

In 1987 he received his Master’s degree in Near Eastern Studies, majoring in teaching Arabic as a foreign language from the University of Michigan, US.

As far as Malaysian students are concerned, there are some 200 who are studying in the Kingdom through scholarships granted by the Saudi government.

“It goes without saying that we’re thankful for the generosity of the Saudi leadership in granting scholarships to our children on whom the future of our country depends,” Mohamad Shahir Sabarudin, counselor at the embassy, told Arab News.

He added he was hoping more Malaysian students would come to study in the Kingdom considering the great emphasis the Saudi leadership has placed on education.

“Proof of this is the establishment of universities which are bound to carve out names among the great educational centers all over the world,” he said.

Examples are King Abdullah University in Thuwal and Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University which boasts 32 colleges across the Riyadh region, he said.