Monday, September 28, 2009

KAUST: King's Dream Becomes Reality



Saudi Arabia made international news this past week with the inauguration of KAUST - King Abdullah University for Sciences and Technology. A longtime dream of King Abullah's, KAUST's glitzy inaugural celebration was held on September 23rd - coinciding with Saudi National Day - in an academically star-studded ceremony attended by various dignitiaries, such as heads of state, Nobel prize winners, and world business icons. The unique university is located 50 miles north of Jeddah in the small fishing community called Thuwal on the Red Sea. Erected out of the desert sands from scratch in an astonishingly short time frame, KAUST went from dream to reality in less than three years.



The top notch facility has attracted the world's cream of the crop in every capacity from students to administrative and teaching positions. Students from fifty different countries have enrolled in KAUST, and from what I understand, all of the students are on full scholarships or fellowships. With the goal of research and advancing science, KAUST specialized fields include math and computers, science and engineering, bioscience and bioengineering, and resources, energy and the environment. Developing solar energy is one of the specific aims of KAUST, in hopes that solar power will, in the near future, handle much of the Kingdom's energy requirements, plus become an important export for Saudi Arabia, along the scale of oil itself.

The expansive KAUST grounds include a coral reef ecosystem which will be preserved as a marine sanctuary by the university, as well as housing for all administration, faculty and students, shopping, recreation, health services, dozens of parks, plus schooling for employees' children. KAUST also provides nifty transportation services including shuttles into Thuwal and Jeddah, golf carts and electric cars for sharing, and bike paths.

The building of this advanced degree research university has not been without controversy. The innovative institution is the first university level educational facility within Saudi Arabia to offer co-ed classes, a revolutionary idea in this sexually segregated Islamic society. But most of the grumblings have focused on the legendary poor quality of education within the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia's public school system has long been criticized for producing ill-prepared students unable to aspire to higher education or the job force, and instead choosing to rigorously emphasize religious indoctrination over the basics like math and science. Thanks to King Abdullah, the entire system is being revamped, from the curriculum to teaching methods to the quality of the teachers themselves.

John Burgess from Crossroads Arabia was fortunate enough to have been invited to attend the spectacular inauguration and you can read his firsthand account of the festivities here.

Here are some other links pertaining to KAUST:

The official KAUST website

Saudi Aggie - a blog written by a KAUST student

Reuters news article about KAUST and the Saudi educational system

Arab News article titled "KAUST: King's Gift to the World"

Saudi King's University Slammed for Coed Classes

35 comments:

  1. Awesome! I hope this is the dawn of a new age for Saudi Arabia. Sounds like a very forward minded King!

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  2. I agree with Diane. This may be a first step for SA. But it seems the lower educational system need big help to ready students for this KAUST.

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  3. This looks like an amazing place for research. Perhaps my son can study genetic engineering there after he gets his B.Sc. at UCSB in California.

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  4. the last picture was really amazing!

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  5. the last picture was really amazing!

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  6. That's awesome! Thanks for the nice pictures Susie. The grandeur of the KAUST building hopefully will be paired with the new science and technology breakthrough invented by its students. All the best.

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  7. Susie, I really hope that this works and the you know who nutjobs won't be allowed on campus. I think of the families who would never let their daughter go to a co-ed university unless it was in another country. This is a very interesting experiment and I hope it goes well.

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  8. A step in the right direction as far as educating the natives with up to date standards and material. I hope Bahrain follows suit as they are currently closing down colleges and private schools due to poor standards and failure to meet scholastic requirements.

    beautiful pics

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  9. Great pics posts and links. KAUST is a wonderful facility nationally and internationally.

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  10. I was waiting for someone to put a blog post up about this. It's wonderful and hopefully a big step in the right direction for freedom.

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  11. Wow! What a gorgeous campus! I am especially happy about the LEED certification too *geeks out* I see this as nothing but an incredible thing for Saudi Arabia, as well as the world :)

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  12. Wendy there are a few blog posts about it including mine, focussing on women faculty, at Tara Umm Omar's blog,
    http://taraummomar.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-23-saudi-national-day-and.html

    Saudi Jeans
    http://saudijeans.org/2009/09/25/saudi-national-day-2/

    Precognitive
    http://precognitive.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/saudi-hooligans/
    http://precognitive.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/after-the-show-theres-the-after-party/

    NidalM
    http://nidalm.com/blog/?p=73

    (NB the comments on Saudi Jeans, and Precognitive.)

    As well as the ones Susie referenced John Burgess at Crossroads Arabia with a number of posts, and a KAUST student's blog.

    I hope you get a chance to read more, even though Susie has done a great job here!

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  13. :) I think this is so amazing, don't you? I love hearing about stuff like this for the womens movement in Saudi Arabia! Go women!

    Ghada
    http://mrhijibiwho.blogspot.com/

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  14. Its always wonderful to have a place to get a higher education and this one looks beautiful.

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  15. I remember doing a assignment with the Times of London on this 2 years back we were all so excited, its great to see that it has finally happened. There are rumours women will be able to drive here also, (any news on that susie if its true or not??) However I hope they will revamp the lower education as well to match this. There has been a start with the Canadian school (AGS) canadian education with an islamic identity, however real improvement will be when free schooling is available for all , no matter their nationality.

    hugs Trae

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  16. What a beautiful campus! It looks like there are several fountains/pools there though - wonder if that isn't exorbitantly expensive to keep up in Saudi Arabia's climate!

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  17. This is truly commendable

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  18. Thanks for a positive article in this world of doom and gloom

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  19. Here is another blog from one of the students... Nate's blog is pretty good, but E-mart's (a grad of UCSB) blog is funny so... (http://sobersaudi.com/).

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  20. Susie, I've found your blog just about two weeks ago and I'm reading it now regularly!

    It's not only very interesting information, but your style of writting makes the reading even more comfortable!

    Good luck for you and your family!

    Waiting for new post very much.


    Aleksey
    Moscow, Russia

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  21. Susie, Iam here...

    I do not know nothing about SA..But now...I will read all your post...hahahhahahahahhahah

    Love it the last shot...amazing


    Have a nce weekend, dear


    graceolsson.com/blog

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  22. How do those female co-eds get to campus since they can't drive? And are the female co-eds citizens of KSA? Or are the female co-eds foreigners on scholarship?

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  23. The university did what was meant for : to change society to the better..One Saudi scholar was sacked from his position in Ulama ( religion legislators ) council after his negative comments about university role in changing society.

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  24. OMG! This just in: The king fired the cleric that spoke against this mixed university.

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  25. the females live on campus, as do all of the students. some are ksa nationals, others are from the usa, Canada, India, Philippines, to name a few

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  26. Certainly one of the more public steps towards reform. Impressive and exciting. I truly hope it succeeds.

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  27. This is nothing short of visionary. He is dragging his people kicking and screaming towards the light.

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  28. I really really hope this is an improvement for young women. I have read that the fact that higher education is available for Saudi women isn't necessarily all positive, as they can be totally indoctrinated and have no excuse for seeing how things are in different countries. They don't even want to rebel any more ...

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  29. these artist impressions of the university are somewhat close to rality.
    The concept is great and the research that is supposed to tak eplace will be great.
    It will be a new horizon if it succeeds............??

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  30. Nice post and this enter helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you on your information.

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  31. The author is really cool. But some of the commentators are just posting stupid words.

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  32. Howdy tasting this blog was indeed many thoughtful , posts like this dignify whoever visits this forum.....

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  33. This is wonderful. I wish we could borrow your King with the vision for a while.

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  34. hi susie,...! glad to know that you're writing about KAUST...
    so right now are u there?

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