Saudi flagship university to be build on 'freedom island'
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is investing $12.5 billion to build a graduate research institution from scratch on a Red Sea island near the village of Thuval.
The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) will be overseen by Ali Ibrahim Al-Naimi, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources. Saudi Aramco, the largest oli corporation in the world, will be responsible for building the campus.
The university is expected to open in September 2009. With more than $10 billion, it will have one of the largest endowments in the world.
Nadhmi Al-Nasr, KAUST Interim President, said: "We would like to see KAUST reach the level of MIT in the next ten years. I know it took MIT decades to be what it is. I am a believer that KAUST can achieve this goal with the nation behind it and the leadership fully supporting it.”
The aim is to transform Saudi Arabia into a knowledge economy to help create wealth through innovation, rather than depending too heavily on oil revenue.
KAUST will offer only engineering and computational science degrees.
International cooperation and the recruitment of leading academics is considered crucial to the future success of the university.
The institution has already announced its partnership with the renowned German research university, Technische Universität München, and professor Shih Choon Fong, currently president of the National University of Singapore, has been chosen to be KAUST's founding President.
The university hopes to lure international scholars with impressive facilities and the offer of generous scholarships. It is expected that initially about two thirds of the 2000 students will come from abroad. King Abdullah has promised that they will enjoy full academic freedom, with men and women from all religious and ethnic groups working side by side.
However, Israeli citizens will be barred from both studying and teaching at the institution.
All other universities in Saudi Arabia will remain subject to Sharia law, which limits women’s rights and prohibits coeducation. Scientists at mainstream Saudi universities often complain that they self-censor their work for fear of offending Islamic beliefs.
KAUST aims to stop the mass emigration of scholars across the Arab world. The Gulf Centre for Strategic Studies in Cairo reports that every year Arab states lose half of their newly graduated doctors, a quarter of their engineers and 15 per cent of their scientists.
Arab graduates depart mainly for the UK, the USA and Canada, and 45 per cent of Arab students never return to their native countries to work after gaining their degrees.
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