JEDDAH, 18 June — The British Council here is moving to new premises in the Farsi Center on Waly Al-Ahd Street in October, according to Neville McBain, the council’s director for the Western Province. “A Saudi woman architect is designing our new office facilities,” he told Arab News. The council has been located at the Middle East Center on Palestine Street for several years.
Features at the new location will include an Internet self-access and open learning center for customers. Also provided will be a computer teaching laboratory for English language students, seminar facilities, 10 classrooms for use by English language students and students attending Leicester University’s MBA program, and a cafeteria. “We’re putting the finishing touches to the new office,” said McBain, who is leaving the Kingdom soon at the end of his term. Allen Swales, currently director of British Council in Dammam, will succeed him.
McBain’s next posting will be in Tashkent as country director for the British Council in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
He said much of the council’s work here could not have been completed without the support of the Ministry of Education and the Saudi universities. “Our goal is to build closer links between the Kingdom and the UK through partnerships in education and training and through the promotion of the English language, and we’re grateful for their support,” he added.
The council’s new five-week English courses for women and men began on Saturday.
