A1SaudiArabia.com

AL-KHOBAR – Saudi students on foreign scholarships have not been involved in any felonies, but generally in misdemeanors punishable by a fine or short-time detention, said Abdullah Al-Musa, Deputy Minister of Higher Education for Scholarship Affairs.

Al-Musa was speaking during a meeting Sunday in Khobar with scholarship students before their departure to their study destinations.

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RIYADH: More than 300,000 people, mainly students and their parents, visited the Kingdoms largest education expo, the first of its kind in which millions of inquiries were generated and a number of agreements were signed by international universities and institutions. The fair closed on Friday night.

The event was a resounding success, which encouraged us to announce the next show on April 19, 2011 here, said Ali S. Al-Attiyah, deputy minister of higher education and chief of the organizing committee of this first International Exhibition for Higher Education.

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RIYADH – Over 250,000 people visited the International Exhibition on Higher Education which concluded here on Friday. More than 300 universities and other academic institutions from the Kingdom and abroad participated in the exhibition organized by the Ministry of Higher Education.

Dr. Saed Al-Harithi, Advisor to Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier and Interior Minister, and Dr. Abdullah Al-Jasser, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Information, visited the exhibition Friday evening.

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RIYADH – Several agreements and memorandums of understanding were signed between US and Saudi universities here recently, Dr. Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Issa, Saudi Cultural Attaché in the United States, said Friday.

Al-Issa said 23,500 Saudi students are currently studying in US universities, and that it is expected that there will be more than 30,000 by the end of 2010.

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RIYADH: Minister of Higher Education Dr. Khaled Al-Anqari opened the International Exhibition for Higher Education on Monday.

More than 300 universities and colleges from all over the world are participating in this first-time event in the Kingdom. They hope to attract Saudi students to study with them. In recent years a total of 80,000 students have benefited from government scholarships. The government recently announced that it would extend the King Abdullah Scholarship program another five years. Scholarships can be worth as much as SR1 million per course.

Through this event, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) seeks to realize a specific shift in Saudi universities and support them to be international pioneers in different aspects and specializations, he said at the opening of the four-day exhibition at the Riyadh International Exhibition Center. Al-Anqari said that it had all been made possible by the support of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation.

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JEDDAH: Last week, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah extended the King Abdullah Scholarship Program by another five years. Studying abroad provides students with the skills needed in this era of globalization and economic prosperity in the Kingdom, and Saudis have long appreciated the value of studying aboard, something that has long been seen as a way of securing good employment. Whether this is true or not is another matter.

According to the Ministry of Higher Education, there are 62,241 Saudi students, both male and female, studying abroad. Although the Saudi higher education system has developed rapidly to meet Saudi job market needs, including the increased establishment of universities in the Kingdom, many students still prefer to study abroad.

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JEDDAH – The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) is investigating a complaint from a student who has accused a private academy in Jeddah. The student has alleged that the academy has withheld his certificates and is preventing him from continuing his studies at another school. The student only found out his studies were not accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education after he joined the academy, prompting his decision to leave. He had already paid his registration fee and attended over three weeks of classes. He claimed the academy had refused to return his educational certificates and other documents unless he paid the course fees in full. – SG

JEDDAH: The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) is currently investigating a complaint from a student who is accusing a private academy in Jeddah of withholding his certificates and preventing him from continuing his studies at another school.

It is understood that he only found out his studies were not accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education after he joined the academy, prompting his decision to leave. He had already paid his registration fee and attended over three weeks of classes. He claimed the academy had refused to return his educational certificates and other documents unless he paid the course fees in full.

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RIYADH: The Council of Ministers on Monday expressed its delight over the high rating received by Saudi Arabia from the global rating agency, Fitch, saying the rating reflected the strength of the Kingdoms economy and the good management of its foreign investment.

In a recent report, the New York-based Fitch Ratings affirmed Saudi Arabias long-term local and foreign currency issuer default ratings (IDRs) at AA-, both with stable outlooks. The country ceiling is affirmed at AA and the short-term foreign currency IDR at F1+.

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DHAHRAN: A prominent expert in the field of renewable energy technology has called on Saudi Arabia to invest heavily in solar technology. Professor Ali Sayigh, director general of the UK-based World Renewable Energy Network, was speaking at a public lecture on solar energy organized by the Center of Research for Excellence in Renewable Energy at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM).

Saudi Arabia has the resources to allocate substantial funds for research in this particular field. Keep oil under ground or maybe use it for better purposes, such as for producing medicines or chemicals. There is no point in burning it all up, he said. Just as you have a basket of currencies, have a basket of energies: Oil, gas and renewables. There is no harm in that.

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