The United Kingdom has always been a special destination for Saudis. In the 1950s, many young Saudis used to dream of attending schools in London. There has been a time when only a few young men and women got the chance to attend schools in the United Kingdom.
However, since the inception of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques scholarship program – the most extensive in the world – tens of thousands of young men and women from every nook and cranny of the Kingdom got the opportunity to attend the best schools around the world. The Ministry of Higher Education was tasked with this challenging job. In this program, the United Kingdom emerged as one of the favorite countries for thousands of young men and women. Now, thousands of young Saudis are attending top schools in the United Kingdom. The scholarship includes tuition, an annual round-trip ticket, and health insurance, a monthly stipend for students and their spouses if married and an allowance for baby-sitting expenses for students with family and children.
Every year a graduation ceremony is held in London in the honor of fresh graduates, which includes a very huge job fair with many participants from the government and private sectors offering job opportunities available in the Kingdom to the fresh graduates. Many of the students are hired even before they return to the Kingdom. The graduates include all majors and all levels. This year’s graduation will be held on March 29-30 in Excel London at the Royal Victorian Dock on the River Thames. The graduation ceremony, like every year will be attended by many Saudi officials such as Dr. Khaled Al-Anqary, minister of higher education and Saudi Ambassador to the United Kingdom Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf. The Saudi Cultural Mission is in full swing to make all preparations for the event. The mission — headed by Dr. Faisal Aba Alkhail — has a very talented and highly educated staff and their primary mission is to look after the wellbeing of the Saudi young men and women in the UK. The Saudi graduates not only receive the best education but they also acts as ambassadors of their country through their constant participation in social activities in their schools and outside their campuses.
In the past few days, I had the honor to get in touch with the director of the academic affairs, Dr. Neama Almutairi, who informed me about the number of this year’s graduates and their majors. These graduates have specialized in many majors badly needed in the Saudi job market. There will be about 4,000 graduates attending the ceremony along with their family members. Those young Saudis with bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees are looking forward to serve their country and it is very important to absorb them in the Saudi job market. As we know it, many government departments, Saudi universities and the private sector are in great need for new talent. So, it is very important to give many of these graduates hands-on training to further hone their skills. The Cultural Mission in the United Kingdom also needs to enhance its career development section, which can help Saudi graduates to do some of their training at major British companies, which have branches in the Kingdom. This way, the new graduates will be more ready for their career paths. The Saudi job market is the largest in the region and it is very important for the Kingdom to accommodate these new talented graduates. At the end, it is important for the families of Saudi students to appreciate efforts of the Saudi Embassy and the Cultural Mission. And for the information of the readers, if a female student is accompanied by her father or brother, he is also eligible for a monthly stipend, health insurance and air tickets.
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