RIYADH: Students who are participating in scholarships abroad should contact the Saudi embassy in their host country if they run into trouble. The issue was addressed as part of the Forum for Scholarship Students in Riyadh on Sunday.
Mohammed Al-Shammari, director of legal affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told forum participants most problems encountered by scholarship students are ignored at cultural attaché offices and advised them to direct their cases to the embassy directly.
Al-Shammari said the majority of the problems students encounter relate to immigration, residency and traffic offenses. Last year legal cases against Saudi students totaled 34 compared to 20 cases the previous year. There were 20 cases filed in Australia, one in Britain, four in New Zealand and nine in Canada.
He advised students to stay away from military facilities in their host countries adding there is currently a case against a student for wrongful presence near a high-security military facility in the United States. The forum offered information workshops to prepare 2,924 scholarship recipients of the eight stage of King Abdullah Scholarships Program.
Topics covered visa and academic issues, international law, cultural awareness and student safety and security.
A recent survey showed 75 percent of scholarship candidates expressed a desire to study in the US, followed by Canada (12 percent), Europe (11 percent) and Asia (2 percent).
Scholarship students receive advice
