TAIF, 23 January 2003 — The private colleges of science and technology in Taif will start enrolling students including girls from October, Dr. Zuhair ibn Ahmed Al-Sibae, general supervisor of the project, announced yesterday.
Speaking at a function held here to mark the groundbreaking for the project by Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed, Al-Sibae disclosed future plans to expand the colleges into a full-fledged private university.
The governor commended Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, who had donated SR10 million for the project’s feasibility study, for his support.
In the first phase, colleges for medicine, nursing, health administration and health information management will be set up, Sibae said.
“We have made plans for the colleges in cooperation with the American University of Arizona and UNESCO and have presented its curriculum to the Ministry of Higher Education for approval,” Sibae said.
Businessmen Abdul Rahman Faqeeh, Abdullah Al-Harithy and Yahya Binladen, Dr. Zuhair Al-Sibae and Dr. Abdullah Dahlan have been selected as members of the project’s board of trustees.
Sibae said the finance committee met recently to review the tenders presented by companies to implement the project on a 250,000 square-meter area south of the sports stadium in Hawiya. A bank account has been opened with an initial investment of SR25 million to implement the project.
The Council of Ministers last year approved in principle a proposal to establish two private universities in the Kingdom.
by converting Prince Sultan Private College and clubbing the private colleges of King Faisal Charitable Foundation.
