RIYADH, 12 May 2003 — Thales of France has donated SR10 million to Al-Faisal University, making it one of the ten current co-founders of the university. Together, they have raised SR100 million for the educational project.
This was announced by Prince Bandar ibn Saud ibn Khaled, deputy managing director of the King Faisal Foundation and chairman of Al-Faisal University’s Board of Founders.
The French defense and telecommunications giant also announced that it is to set up a software engineering institute and a program and project management institute within the university. These two institutes will facilitate technology transfer to the Kingdom and contribute to human resources development.
Denis Ranque, chairman and chief executive officer of Thales, said the software institute would provide graduate and undergraduate studies in software engineering at an internationally recognized level. The project management institute will similarly provide graduate and undergraduate studies, offering high-tech employment prospects in a variety of industries.
Al-Faisal University, a new private university established by the King Faisal Foundation, will culturally be based on Islam and an understanding of the global market’s diversity.
Al-Faisal University also invited Thales on to its Board of Trustees. Thales, which has a work force of 700 in the Kingdom, has supplied numerous key defense systems to the Royal Saudi Air, Land and Naval Forces. Its representative on the Board of Trustees will be Marc Cathelineau, senior vice president of Thales International. The other founding members include the King Faisal Foundation, Dallah Al-Barakah, Al-Jomaih, Saudi Oger, 2K+, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, BAE Systems, Boeing Technologies and United Technologies.
“Al-Faisal University will pioneer a new approach to graduate and undergraduate education in Saudi Arabia by forging strategic partnerships, particularly with high tech industries, to ensure that its science and technology curricula remain state-of-the-art and fully consistent with employers’ expectations,” Ranque said.
Asked when Al-Faisal University would open its doors for admission, Prince Bander said: “We’ll announce a date very soon. We are still negotiating with the Ministry of Higher Education on some of the issues that, we hope, will be resolved soon.”
