Academics have stressed the significance of devoting greater attention to women’s higher education, especially given the recent royal decree that allocated SR4 billion toward enhancing the infrastructure of female colleges across the Kingdom.
“Women have an important role to play in the country’s development, and as such they need to be given the necessary support for their advancement,” a faculty member at the Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah said.
“Studies must be undertaken with special attention to the needs of the future employment markets before commencing upon establishing new higher education programs,” Associate Professor at the College of Women’s Education Ibtisam Al-Anbari said.
Al-Anbari urged secondary school students to work harder so that they could get admitted to majors of their choice in higher education institutions.
“The new financial allotment opens a new vista of hope for female students in secondary schools who want to continue their education,” she said.
A member of the Business Faculty at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Aliya Abu Suleiman, asserted that the support provided by the government for women’s education helps create a large number of specializations and choices of programs for female students, which therefore provides them with a multitude of options to explore.
She added that the expansion in women’s education also requires teachers of high caliber especially in advanced specializations, catering for the needs of the modern age.
She also said the new move in women’s education should bear results such as enabling graduates to successfully meeting the latest demands of the employment market in the Kingdom.
Higher Education Minister Khaled Al-Anqari recently set up a committee for the implementation of the government order under Deputy Minister of Higher Education Ahmed Al-Saif with a number of education experts.
The government is keen on incorporating the talents of Saudi women in the nation’s social and national development. It was with the aim of empowering women of Saudi Arabia that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah inaugurated Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) in Riyadh in 2011.
With the facility to accommodate 40,000 students and 12,000 employees and a new library capable of holding 4.5 million books, PNU is the largest women’s university in the world.
More college buildings for women urged
