Jubail University College graduates were honored on Sunday at the King Abdullah Cultural Center in Jubail Industrial City.

The celebration for 359 graduates was held under the auspices of Princess Abeer bint Faisal bin Turki, wife of the Eastern Province governor.

The event included college graduates from the last two academic years from the departments of business administration, management information system, English and computers in addition to interior design.

Dr. Ali bin Hassan Assiri, general manager of Colleges and Institute Sector at the Royal Commission for Jubail (RCJ), said: “Jubail University College’s graduates have distinguished qualitative value in the labor market, as the RCJ is keen to apply high academic standards to ensure that graduates represent a driving force in the Kingdom’s renaissance movement.”

Speaking on the employment rates of Jubail graduates, Assiri told Arab News that 90 percent of graduates are recruited while the rest start their postgraduate studies abroad or open their own business.

“The RCJ, while emphasizing the educational curriculum, involves industry representatives participating in course development to ensure parallelism between taught curriculum and required jobs.”

“Work is continuing at the new college headquarters on a 2 million sq. meter area including 250,000 sq.meter of academic facilities, 102,000 sq.meter of staff accommodation and 380,000 sq. meter of student accommodation along with health and recreational facilities on an entirely new campus that combines the identity of a rapidly growing Jubail with the sense of a real urban community,” said Assiri.

According to data seen by Arab News, the first phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2019 with a capacity of 18,000 students. There will be 6,000 male dorms, 4,800 female dorms, 400 single male and female staff apartments, 450 apartments and houses for family-based staff, a town center with facilities, admissions and registrations buildings, dining halls, a female recreation center and a mosque for the males.

The master planning objective for the male and female student accommodation is to make connections with the academic and library sections of the university, allowing the students to have easy access to learning while creating separation for independent living.