RIYADH: The Ministry of Higher Education said in a statement that the ministry’s offer to bring private postgraduate students in British universities under the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program is limited to students currently present in the British territories.
“Only Saudi students currently doing their master’s, doctorate degrees or medical fellowships in British universities would benefit from the program,” it said.
“The ministry is determined to solve the problems faced by Saudis studying abroad whether he or she is on state scholarship or not,” the statement said.
In another development, the Saudi cultural attaché to Germany and Italy, Fahd bin Ibrahim Al-Habib, said major problems being faced by Saudi students in Italy are: the learning of the local language, renewal of their residence visas and changing of their language-study visa to university-study visa.
“Italy and Saudi Arabia signed cultural agreements long ago and now is the time to invoke them for strengthening relations between Saudi and Italian universities so that Saudi students could get more facilities and can join better language-training programs. The attaché’s office should get regular reports on the progress of the students,” Al-Habib said while speaking in a meeting with Saudi students in Italy on Wednesday.
The attaché added that he planned to celebrate Saudi days in Italian universities and participate in leading Italian international book fairs.
The official said he also had several meetings with Saudi students in Holland during which he promised to solve the residence problem of those accompanying unmarried girl students there.
He said the Saudi Embassy signed agreements with two Dutch universities and is currently trying to extend the visa period of men accompanying girl students to six months from the present three months.
He said 100 students would be returning shortly to the Kingdom after the completion of their medical studies in Europe.
