JEDDAH, 6 June 2006 — Fewer requisite hours for bachelor’s degrees and more focus on English and computer skills are a few of the changes to King Abdul Aziz University’s core curriculum starting in the fall semester, Arab News learned yesterday.
The changes, which administrators say are the first of their kind in the university’s history, have been two years in the making and will affect KAAU’s three colleges: Arts & Humanities, Sciences, and Economics & Administration. University administrators say the reforms are part of the broader effort to match coursework with needs in the local job market. On-the-job training will also be part of the new curriculum.
“During the process of forming the new plan, faculty members met with private and public employers to know their needs and try to incorporate them into the curriculum,” Ahmad Al-Nagadi, dean of KAAU’s College of Economics & Administration, told Arab News.
The requisite hours for a bachelor’s degree have been reduced from 137 to 128. A major change in the coursework will affect freshmen in the form of a so-called “preparatory year” that will include more focus in the first year on teaching English and computer skills. Communications, composition, maths and statistics will also be emphasized at the College of Economics.
Students will also be declaring areas of specialty within the colleges right after the first year rather than in the third or fourth year. Al-Nagadi said that the different departments within his college would encourage freshmen to think and declare which of the college’s six departments they want to enter as soon as possible so that they can specialize their studies.
The College of Economics will add a web page outlining this new curriculum at the university website.
“Our main concern will be given to our current students,” said Al-Nagadi, adding that students who have already taken courses that are no longer requisite, or have been replaced by other courses, would not lose their hours.
Students will require a new course called Research & Training, which is a summer internship program, before they can graduate. There is also a whole semester devoted to fieldwork and training in the Systems (Law) Department. The university has added different law courses including those in human rights, constitutional law and political science in its law department.
“We formed the new plan for the department for both boys and girls along with the men faculty staff,” said Fathiya Al-Qurashi, head of the Sociology Department at the girls’ section in the College of Arts & Humanities, adding that the changes will for the first time require students to take computer courses.
“In the past graduates used to go to private institutes and pay for such courses,” said Al-Qurashi.
Hussein Al-Sharif, head of the Systems (Law) Department, which is part of the university’s College of Economics, said that a committee had been formed two years ago to study the changes that needed to be made.
“They looked closely into different law colleges in the Gulf and Arab world and the West to determine the changes that could be applicable in Saudi Arabia,” said Al-Sharif.
The Law Department last year accepted 55 women for the first time, Al-Sharif pointed out. He said that there are going to be certain procedures for training women in legal affairs. Al-Sharif said he would be meeting with students today to discuss the new curriculum.
