RIYADH, 17 April — A leading educational institution of Saudi Arabia, Al-Faisal International Academy (ALFAC), operating under the supervision of the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT), has signed an agreement with Canada’s Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).
This tie-up between the two major institutions has given a major boost to the Saudi-Canadian relations in education sector.This was disclosed by Ahmed ibn Abdulrahman Al-Taweel, ALFAC’s managing director, while receiving Canadian Ambassador Melvyn MacDonald at the academy.
MacDonald was also received by Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Fahd Al-Faisal Al-Farhan Al-Saud, who is the brain behind this world-class institution, the first of its kind established at a cost of SR15 million, offering extensive teaching facilities for VIPs, officials and general students.
After talks with Prince Abdul Aziz, the ambassador was taken to a round of the academy by Al-Taweel and Khalid Hammad, ALFAC’s assistant managing director.
Addressing a press conference on this occasion, MacDonald said the Kingdom and Canada have forged closer cooperation in education sector and this cooperation is again evident from the ALFAC-NAIT agreement.
Al-Taweel said under this agreement NAIT will open its chapter in Riyadh. It is indeed a pioneering move to deliver quality education to the prospective students from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries. ALFAC, he said, will enroll the first batch of students for the joint program next January.
Initially students will be enrolled in two major disciplines — computer science and business administration. After completing a two-year diploma, they will have the option of pursuing advanced courses either at the NAIT’s Riyadh campus or in Canada. The program will help reduce the number of Saudi students traveling abroad for education.
Ambassador MacDonald said more than 150,000 foreign students — a substantial number of them from the Gulf states — are currently on the rolls of different Canadian institutions.
The move to forge cooperation between ALFAC and NAIT, according to Al-Taweel, is also significant keeping in view the fact that many Gulf and Saudi students are reported to have returned home after the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the US.
The ALFAC’s management, he said, has plans to set 16 similar facilities including an academy for girls in Saudi Arabia. ALFAC has already listed more than 200 national companies seeking to absorb its graduates. The Canada-based NAIT, on the other hand, is a world-class technical institute offering hundreds of tailor-made courses.
