Saudi Arabia

Handsomely Endowed Graduate University to Open in 2009

The King of Saudi Arabia will soon open the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, a graduate university thought to have one of the largest university endowments in the world.

An international search has begun for the university's first president, who will be appointed by the end of the year or early 2008. Other top administrative posts will be filled after the president is in place. The university, which is slated to open in Rabigh in 2009, will include four research institutes on resources, energy and the environment; biosciences and engineering; materials science and engineering; and applied mathematics and computer science.

Grants of up to US$1 billion over ten years will pay for research collaborations with universities worldwide into desalination and water supply, carbon capture and hydrogen-rich fuels, industrial biotechnology, catalysis and polymer chemistry, language software technologies and computational linguistics, and scientific computing. The university has already signed cooperation deals with institutions in Singapore, France and the United States. There will also be scholarships for students. The Discovery Scholars scheme pays for tuition and accommodation for up to 250 undergraduates at other universities and colleges who would start a postgraduate course at KAUST when they finish their studies.

-KAUST news release
May 2007

Bahrain

National Quality Assurance Agency Set to Begin Work

Universities in Bahrain will soon be under scrutiny by an independent University Quality Review Unit (UQRU) designated as Bahrain’s official quality assurance agency. It will have a mandate to conduct external quality reviews of universities and publish their findings.

Diagnostic studies carried out by the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Ministry of Education for the development of national education initiatives showed that a majority of Bahraini university graduates were not performing up to international standards, or the demands of the labor market. The UQRU will review universities against a set of quality indicators. International experts from the Australian Universities Quality Agency as well as local university leaders will work together during the evaluation process.

According to Martin Foster, project leader and member of Bahrain’s Economic Development Board, “Certifying local private universities has long been a problem in Bahrain due to the lack of parameters to determine an institution’s competency. Local universities would usually establish partnerships with UK- or US-based universities to add to their credentials but it does not necessarily mean that it follows the same directives, policies and curricula.”

Pilot assessments at two universities will be carried out this year, before full implementation is carried out in 2008.

- Bahrain Tribune
June 15, 2007

GEMS Founder to Develop New International Chain of Schools

Two of the world's leading education entrepreneurs are to partner in building 60 multimillion-dollar, high-end international schools in big cities across the world that will cater to the children of bankers, diplomats and executives who have to regularly uproot their families. The two founders of Nations Academy come from different ends of the school-building spectrum. Chris Whittle started the Edison Schools company, which runs schools in some of America’s poorest neighborhoods; whereas, his partner is the chairman of Dubai-based Global Education Management Systems (GEMS), which runs private schools around the world. Annual tuition fees at Nations Academy schools will be between $15,000 and $40,000, depending on the city.

The new schools will be designed to meet the needs of parents in the West and fast-developing nations like India and China, and they will aim to appeal to parents who want to give their children an international outlook. The first school is expected to open in 2010, but the full network of 60 will not be complete for another 10 to 12 years.

- Financial Times
July 2, 2007