RIYADH, 30 May 2004 — King Saud University is disappointed with the Italian Embassy over what it says is the mission’s failure to support its Italian language course. Its College of Languages and Translation is for most of its courses dependent on embassies under cultural agreements signed between the Kingdom and the respective countries.
Dr. Abdullah H. Al-Homaidan, the dean of the college, yesterday said it was unable to carry on teaching a number of languages “because of the lackluster support of some foreign governments and their local diplomatic missions”.
He singled out the Italian program, which “is not doing well, and if the cultural attaché at the Italian mission and the Italian universities will not support the program, it will die a premature death.”
Saudi Arabia and Italy signed an agreement to cooperate in the fields of education, culture and tourism which is meant to facilitate exchange of teachers and students.
By contrast the Turkish and Japanese governments are consistently supportive. Dr. Homaidan said five Saudi students will go to Turkey in summer to study the language, while another five will study for their PhD there. “We also have a full-time Turkish teacher at the college, paid by the Turkish government,” he said. Japan has sent three professors of Japanese.
The college teaches 10 languages and despite the setbacks has hopes of introducing others including Chinese, Hausa and Urdu. It claims graduates have no trouble finding jobs. It is planning a new SR50 million building, already approved, which will expand its capacity to 3,000 students.
