ALKHOBAR, 7 May 2006 — One of the founders of Dar Al-Hekma College for Women said that Dhahran’s King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) would serve as the model for a new boys’ university in the Western Province.
Jeddah businessman Zuhair Fayez of the Zuhair Fayez Partnership and board member of the Al-Ilm Foundation, which owns Dar Al-Hekma College, said plans were under way for a boys’ school that will respond to job-market demand. He made the comments during the recent “Megaprojects and Learning Dialogue” organized by the Gulf Society for Organizational Learning (Gulf SOL) at the Gulf Meridien Hotel in Alkhobar.
Fayez updated Arab News on his announcement in 2005 at a Gulf SOL conference in Durrat Al-Arus that a new university was being contemplated for Rabigh, which since has become the home of King Abdullah Economic City where Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. are building the massive PetroRABIGH petrochemicals complex.
He said the success of Dar Al-Hekma and its financial stability allowed the foundation to shift its focus to the new project.
“We think we’ve had very good success with Dar Al-Hekma College,” Fayez told Arab News. “The minute our young girls graduate, and we’ve had four graduating classes, they all get jobs because of the design of the program. It’s designed to give them discipline, confidence in themselves, and to break the molds in traditional thinking — everything to find out how they can contribute. In addition, we teach them how to be job creators rather than job seekers and foster their entrepreneurial skills. We have seen that. Some have developed Internet businesses; some have gone to work for Procter & Gamble and other companies, and their employers are very happy with the results.”
One of the challenges noted at the Gulf SOL dialogue was an apparent disconnect between some higher education programs and the needs of business and industry, particularly in engineering and science fields. According to recent statistics cited at the conference, 63 percent of the Kingdom’s annual 100,000 university graduates either major in Shariah Law or humanities; only about eight percent graduate with engineering degrees. Other concerns cited in the area human resources development was a lack of discipline and proper work ethics. Fayez said the new school would address these problems.
“Last year, we started thinking about a school for boys because the boys are a little different than girls,” Fayez said. “I have noticed the quality of the students graduating from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, and there are several ingredients that make them the leaders of Saudi Arabia today. The first is that the school is very focused in responding to job career paths. Secondly, it’s a campus where they have dormitories and activities. Third is that they’re very keen on quality, and they don’t make compromises. Fourth is discipline; they have them all day long in dormitories and the classrooms.”
Fayez said KFUPM’s continued screening of students even after they begin is an important part of the process.
“After the first year, 20 or 30 percent of the students leave if they’re not meeting the requirements,” Fayez said. “Consequently, when they graduate, they have an excellent group of professionals. This is the model we would like Al-Ilm Foundation to replicate for the boys’ university.”
In the year since the initiative was announced, Fayez said the list of potential locations for the school has grown.
“It will be a campus, either in Rabigh or possibly Shumaisy, between Makkah and Jeddah — we could have help from both Makkah and Jeddah. It would be away from the city so we can mold them. You know, sometimes boys who attend universities in the city can be very serious students in the daytime, but at 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. they’re free; they go to the beach or cruising or hanging out. No. After class, we’d like to get a hold of them and get them into sports or clubs or other more constructive activities. This is our plan for the boys’ university.”
He expects important decisions to be made later this month.
“We have an Al-Ilm Foundation general assembly coming up in May, and we are talking to King Abdullah Economic City that has an educational zone where they can help us with the land. There is also a new science zone between Jeddah and Makkah. They’re also developing a plan and making it very favorable for us as a nonprofit foundation to go and establish a school there. So we will put these two options in front of the board and start a founding members’ team and start finding out where the funding will come from to create that university.”
Fayez said the Gulf SOL events give academic, business and government leaders a great opportunity to forge solutions to some of the Kingdom’s greatest challenges to Saudization and the expansion of sustainable economic development.
“I liked this conference mainly because it’s related to what we do, and we’re faced with these problems,” Fayez said. “We have a lot of challenges — especially in human resources. This Gulf SOL conference, in my opinion, has been the best one because it’s searching for solutions to some very big challenges. Because of the upbeat economic situation, everybody is really excited because the numbers are staggering in terms of what needs to be done, but the problems also are staggering.”
