PARIS, June 1 (KUNA) -- Two Kuwaiti academic figures paid the French capital a five-day visit in May within the framework of a European mission that included Switzerland and Spain to visit business schools and review a student exchange programs.

Interviewed by KUNA, Kuwait University's (KU) Dean of the College of Business Administration (CBA) and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr. Adel Al-Hussainan said that in 2001, the college requested international academic accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

He said the main factor based on which any college obtained this accreditation was for "its performance and its ability to continue to assess itself, whether through studies or polls, and to deal with and tackle its weaknesses."

He added that the college obtained six-year accreditation in 2005, noting that "this accreditation is considered a means to inform the international community of the college and its academic and scientific standards, and also open new horizons through interacting with similar colleges worldwide."

According to Al-Hussainan, the best means to serve the academic process and further improve the standard of the college "is through opening itself to other similar colleges in the world."

"The most important skills for business students is cultural diversity, knowledge of what is going on in the world, knowing the different kinds of systems in the business world and in the private sector," he noted.

He added that the idea of the project, known as "The Global Center for International Exchange, Development and Leadership Programs," was the result of these factors and it was thus launched in April 2005.

The Kuwaiti academic figure pointed out that since then, several distinguished schools were contacted, out of which two are in France, while other business colleges were located in the US, Spain and Switzerland, and there was also an interest in India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Canada "with the aim of having an international exchange of students and faculty members."

He added that "the Kuwaiti private sector also has an important part in the project as a main partner and in helping rehabilitate the executive and administrational skills in the that sector, especially given that this sector is expanding vastly."

Al-Hussainan stressed that student exchange was an important part of the project as it "promotes the academic programs of the college to build up the skills of the students through being acquainted with other cultures."

This part of the project, he said, was first launched from Paris this January, where two students from CBA joined two different top business universities here for a whole semester and wouls finish in June. Then their credits would be transferred so they could complete their studies again at KU.

He expects that next September seven students will be joining KU from here, in addition to other students from other countries.

As for the criteria of selecting the students, he indicated that it is based on three factors: their GPA which has to be above 3.0, fluency in English and they have to pass a personal interview, which is considered the hardest part.

He added that these conditions also applied to the students coming to Kuwait.

Al-Hussainan stressed that the cultural offices in different countries were linked with this part of the project as they had been asked to contact top business colleges.

On his part, Director of the Kuwaiti Cultural office in Paris Dr. Mohammed Al-Feeli told KUNA the students who took part in this experience had the ability to take "the initiative and were self-reliant."

He said that the cultural office was a "safeguard" for the students and was a means to follow-up the administrative part of the experience.

He added that the office was receiving students from French universities and preparing files for students in universities in Spain and also Switzerland to apprise them of the nature of the economic, political and education systems in Kuwait.

One student, Sarah Habib Rotabi, who is a junior student at the CBA in KU, said that studying in France for one semester was a whole new experience for her, not only for the knowledge she was acquiring "but also because I am getting to deal with different people and getting to know a new country and culture."

By Sherouq Sadeqi