JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will lay the foundation stone of the new campus of Kingdom’s first women university shortly, Princess Al-Jowhara bint Fahd, president of the university, announced yesterday. Located north of Riyadh, the university will have 13 new colleges.
She praised King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan for their tremendous support to Riyadh Women's University, which, she said, will usher in a new era in higher education for women in Saudi Arabia. “We want to make it a leading international university,” Princess Al-Jowhara told Al-Riyadh Arabic daily. She disclosed plans about tie-ups with prominent universities inside and outside the Kingdom to promote research. The women’s university, along with its affiliated colleges, has so far enrolled 17,000 women students, she added.
She spoke about the university’s plan to focus on educational programs that are essential to meet the Kingdom’s job market requirements. She also praised Saudi women for their increasing role in the Kingdom’s development activities.
The university will have three health colleges: A college for nursing, another for pharmacology and a college for naturopathy. Other colleges are for administrative sciences; computer science and technology; nursery training; sciences, languages and translation.
“The new colleges will accommodate 1,500 students this academic year,” the princess said, adding that existing colleges would be restructured in tune with job market requirements. The university and its affiliated colleges have given admission to 61 percent of secondary school graduates in the Riyadh region.
Al-Jowhara said her university devised its educational programs after consulting different ministries including the ministries of labor, commerce and industry and economy and planning. “We have prepared a strategic plan for the next 10 years.”
Speaking about the new university campus, she said it would be spread over an area of eight million square meters along the Airport Road, north of Riyadh. “The king has pledged his moral and material support for the university project and has been following up the project despite his busy itinerary,” she added.
Princess Al-Jowhara advised Saudi women to adhere to Islamic culture and values and work hard to realize the hopes and aspirations of their country’s leadership. She stressed the need to resolve the unemployment problem among Saudi women by creating new job opportunities for them.
The university recently announced its plan to provide a six-week summer training for women graduates. The training program is one of the university’s major projects and is to take place each summer over the next four years.
Al-Jowhara said the program would be continuously reviewed and updated according to job market needs.
