JEDDAH, 21 October 2007 — Nadhmi A. Al-Nasr, the dynamic young interim president of the SR10 billion King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), envisions the new research-based institution as a catalyst for creating a knowledge economy in Saudi Arabia — which is a long-standing dream of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah himself.
Al-Nasr said in an exclusive interview with Arab News yesterday that KAUST will be a graduate-level research institution instead of an undergraduate one. “It is the vision of King Abdullah to have this university as a turning point in higher education,” he said. “Hopefully, it will act as a catalyst in transforming Saudi Arabia into a knowledge economy, by directly integrating research produced at the university into our economy.”
The new university’s ground-breaking ceremony takes place today at Thuwal which is 100 km off Jeddah. Top academics from around the world are expected to take part in the landmark event.
Al-Nasr said the goal of becoming a world-class university, able to contribute to the global-research enterprise, is a motivating factor behind the university’s strategic plan. KAUST’s emphasis on its research agenda, he said, allows the university to provide an environment in which scientists and engineers are free to focus on their work.
“Unlike many primarily undergraduate universities, KAUST will not have a two-tier faculty,” said Al-Nasr. “All faculties will be of the highest caliber and able to formulate value-added research projects or will have unique background experience — as teachers or in private industry.” Al-Nasr said that English would be the medium of instruction at the university. It will be modeled on such institutions as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University. Classrooms will open in September 2009, Al-Nasr said. “The doors and the gates will open then.”
The university’s research agenda aims to accelerate scientific discovery and technological innovation, said Al-Nasr. “On the organizational side, the strategy involves flexible funding and outreach to potential partner institutions, and targeted investments in physical and intellectual infrastructure in order to stimulate collaboration with other research universities and the private sector.
“We are confident that since this university will work in close conjunction with other universities in Saudi Arabia — especially leading universities such as King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah and King Saud University in Riyadh — it will raise the level of research and technology,” he said.
The university will also work to improve the level of graduate students. Requirements for entering KAUST are extremely high, and students will have to compete intensively to enter. “We think these steps will help other universities transform and improve themselves,” Al-Nasr said. “That is a positive impact we envisage as a result of the creation of this new university. That is one part.
“The other part is that hopefully, as we succeed at KAUST to put together the right model for research work, other leading universities will follow this model,” the interim president said.
“It is basically the model for linking the research institute with business and the economy.” That model is really lacking in other institutions, he said.
Al-Nasr was asked why Saudi Aramco was tasked with this prestigious project. “We as a company have always delivered. We have never promised anything we did not deliver. The leadership knows that if we are tasked with something we will deliver. We have huge experience in the execution of mega-projects. We are a very experienced company in training. We are a 75-year-old company and from day one there has been a focus on training. We have been sending students abroad; we have had thousands and thousands of students over the past 75 years that we sent to study at all levels, be it masters or Ph.D.”
“Yes,” Al-Nasr said, “we may not have our own university but we have been in this business ourselves; we are very close to KFUPM. But one bigger dimension to all this, where Aramco can make a difference is this: We are talking about establishing an international university in KAUST that is going to have an international culture, that is going to host people from all over the world: Different nationalities, different beliefs, different faiths, etc. etc.
“One of the key factors that will make KAUST successful is to have that healthy and positive international culture that everybody will enjoy. Aramco has set the best international model in Saudi Arabia. We have lived with that model for 75 years now. That experience cannot be matched by anybody in Saudi Arabia.”
Al-Nasr sees KAUST as both complementing and competing, in very positive ways, with the Kingdom’s other universities. “We hope KAUST will do both,” he said. “It will complement other universities and also compete with them. There is nothing wrong with competition. We believe competition is healthy. That is what the country needs: Competition in education, competition in research... Both are great for the country.”
Asked where KAUST’s students would come from, Al-Nasr said they would be drawn from countries around the world. “But, of course, we are working hard to make sure that a large portion is from Saudi Arabia, from existing Saudi universities, as well as Saudi students from international universities. We are targeting universities in Europe, in the United States and Asia.”
According to Al-Nasr, KAUST is an international university which is not going to be limited to Saudis. “We will, however, try as hard as we can to get as many talented Saudis as we can from within Saudi Arabia and abroad.”
Two months ago, KAUST launched a program called the Discovery Scholarship, which focuses on undergraduate students outside and inside the Kingdom now in their second and third years. “We are basically looking for the most talented,” Al-Nasr said. “KAUST wants to grant them scholarships so that they can finish their undergraduate courses by the time we start the university.”
The first group to join KAUST when it opens in September 2009 will be the Discovery Scholarship students. Recruitment for these qualified students is now under way around the world. The scholarship will provide full tuition, a living stipend, book and computer allowances, and summer and career enrichment programs to qualified science and technology students at their home institutions prior to the university’s opening.
Upon graduation, these students will enter KAUST as master’s degree students in 2009 and 2010, and will complete their studies on fully-funded scholarships. “We are looking for exceptionally talented and motivated students — led by an equally extraordinary faculty — who have a thirst for knowledge and an adventurous and creative spirit,” Al-Nasr said.
The interim president explained that the scholarship program is one part of a three-pronged strategy to build the university’s intellectual capital. A second KAUST initiative is its Global Research Partnership, a program that provides support for, and collaboration with, leading scientific research centers and individual scientists around the globe, along with research and educational collaboration with leading institutions.
So far, Al-Nasr said, KAUST has entered into formal partnerships with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Institut Francais du Petrole in France, the National University of Singapore, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB) and, most recently, the American University in Cairo.
The new university will be constructed at Thuwal on the Red Sea. Not far from Thuwal is Rabigh, site of an existing Saudi Aramco refinery, which is being transformed under a new joint venture with Sumitomo Chemical of Japan into a huge integrated petrochemical and refining facility.
Al-Nasr said there were two reasons for locating KAUST at Thuwal. One: Because one of the leading research areas for KAUST will be the Red Sea itself: its marine life and its fishery industry. Two, the site is part of a larger master plan, to be developed from Rabigh all the way to Thuwal, which will include the petrochemical complex (PetroRabigh), King Abdullah Economic City and KAUST. Al-Nasr saw many possible synergies when the entire area is developed, linking industry, commerce, education, business and research.
Asked what role Saudi women would have at the university, Al-Nasr said: “Exactly the same as a Saudi man. No difference.”
Since KAUST is King Abdullah’s favorite project, Al-Nasr was asked if he could share his impressions of the king’s involvement in the project. Al-Nasr noted that King Abdullah has had the dream of this university for over 25 years.
“He is extremely happy and proud that his dream is finally taking shape,” Al-Nasr said. “His vision is to see KAUST drive the transformation of the Saudi economy into a knowledge economy. It may be easy for us to say we want to transform the economy into a knowledge economy. However, it is a long journey that a nation has to undertake. The king believes that KAUST is the starting point of that transformation.”
Transforming a nation into a knowledge economy through such a research-based university requires bringing the world’s best talents together in one location. “If you can manage to bring the best talent, to provide them the best environment for excelling in science and technology and link that mind/mental power to your economy, and make sure that the discoveries and inventions are capitalized upon and implemented and doing business, it can all start from such an endeavor. That exactly is the king’s vision,” Al-Nasr said.
Asked whether KAUST would usher in an era of Muslim and Arab scientific renaissance, Al-Nasr said: “We hope — and so does the king — that KAUST will bring back to us as a nation, Arabs and Muslims, the great history of the Golden Age, when we led the world in science and technology. We believe we can do that... There is no reason why we can’t.”
Al-Nasr is a KFUPM graduate and a chemical engineer by training. He has spent 29 years with Saudi Aramco, and prior to joining KAUST as its interim president, was Saudi Aramco’s vice president of engineering services. He is well-known for his leadership of the Shaybah Project, in which Saudi Aramco built an impressive oil production and processing facility in the remote Rub Al-Khali desert, first commissioned in 1998.
Asked to compare the Shaybah Project to KAUST, Al-Nasr said: “Shaybah was an execution challenge. Its remoteness, its schedule, the area’s harshness, the demand for oil at the time... It was a big execution challenge. KAUST is completely different. It goes beyond an execution challenge. It will hopefully transform the nation economically. It is like bringing the world to Saudi Arabia. And projecting the best image of Saudi Arabia to the world. To do all of this in a short period is a true challenge.”
Asked whether KAUST would provide skilled employees for Saudi Aramco, Al-Nasr said: “For all companies in Saudi Arabia, not just Saudi Aramco. KAUST will be a training ground for future scientists and researchers for Saudi Aramco and all other leading industries in the region.”
Al-Nasr expressed hopes that KAUST would encourage other Saudi universities to excel in higher research. “I am pleased to note that the leading universities — KFUPM, King Saud University, King Abdul Aziz University — are working extremely hard on redesigning themselves. We are glad that is happening,” he said.
“Saudi Arabia,” Al-Nasr said, “is a large country, size-wise, population-wise, and economy-wise and it can have more than one KAUST. I am sure that in the future there will be a need for a KAUST 2 or KAUST 3.”
Asked how he felt being the interim president of KAUST, Al-Nasr said: “Nothing compares with the excitement of launching this university project. I really feel the responsibility of this job. And what it will mean to the nation. This is history in the making. I believe we are all very fortunate to be part of this project. We would like to see KAUST reach the level of MIT in the next 10 years. I know it took MIT decades to be what it is. I am a believer that KAUST can achieve this goal with the nation behind it and the leadership fully supporting it.”
