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Major academic projects approved

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has approved a number of key decisions taken at the 69th session of the Higher Education Council. The king is also the council's chairman.

Higher Education Minister Khalid Al-Anqari said these decisions include establishment of four new university faculties, changing the names of some faculties, and extension of 59 university academic faculty members' tenures.

Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency, Al-Anqari said the council decided to include children of Saudis living permanently in Kuwait under the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program. "These children are eligible to take advantage of the scholarship program like in the case of children of Saudis residing permanently in other countries if they fulfill the terms and conditions stipulated in an earlier royal order," he said.

According to the minister, the council approved setting up a faculty for Islamic economics and finance at Makkah's Umm Al-Qura University. The faculty would have four departments -- economics, financing, banking and capital markets, and insurance. A faculty of sciences and arts under the University of Al-Baha will be established in Qalwa region. There will be six departments under the faculty, including chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, biology and English language.

The council also decided to establish a third faculty at Princess Noura University for Women in Riyadh. The dermatology faculty will consist of departments of basic science, clinical science, and basic skills and training. King Abdullah has given approval for the setting up of a faculty of sciences and arts under Dammam University in Qaryat Al-Olya. The faculty will have departments of Islamic studies, English language, mathematics, computer science and biology.

Al-Anqari said the council meeting also decided to set up a deanship for community service and sustained development at Dammam University, besides restructuring the faculties of teachers and girls at Umm Al-Qura University, the faculty of sciences and art, and the faculty of applied sciences at Taiba University in Yanbu.

The king has given the go-ahead with the council's initiative to change the names of some faculties and departments at the universities of Taif and Majma and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals .

The minister said the council has also endorsed memorandums of cooperation between Riyadh's Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University and Lahore Islamic University of Pakistan, Jazan University and Japan's Kanazawa University, and Jazan University and Maastricht University of the Netherlands. The meeting also approved the annual reports of Jazan University and Taif University.

The Higher Education Council is the Kingdom's supreme authority for post-secondary level education affairs with the specific task of supervising and coordinating its institutions, with the exception of military education. The council's tasks include streamlining university education in accordance with the government policy, supervising development of university education in all sectors, encouraging research, in addition to formulating rules and regulations for all institutions of higher learning.

© Arab News 2012

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