RIYADH, 6 September 2004 — The Kingdom has embarked on an ambitious educational project under which a number of students are being enrolled at Belgian universities, which are internationally famous for offering quality education.
Ten students have already been selected by the government to be admitted to Belgium’s Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) for pursuing a seven-year medical degree program.
“The Saudi Ministry of Higher Education will bear the total cost of education for all these students including a female student, who will be leaving for Brussels tentatively on Sept. 20,” said Patrick Deboeck, charge d’affaires at the Belgian Embassy here yesterday.
“The students will be admitted to the bachelor’s degree course and the Saudi cultural office in France will pay all expenses,” according to Dr. Mustaf A. Al-Bar, acting director general for scholarships at the Ministry of Higher Education, who has issued scholarship certificates to the students.
Belgium has emerged as a new educational destination for Saudi students in a post-Sept. 11 era. Currently, more than 15,500 Saudi students are on the rolls of different universities across the world including American universities. Out of this number, 674 students are pursuing their studies on Saudi government scholarships mainly in the US, Britain, Germany, France, Austria, Japan, China, Russia, Australia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE.
But an increasingly large number of Saudi students are seeking admission in Western, Far Eastern and Arab universities after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, which led to an exodus of students from the US. In such a situation, Belgium offers a better destination for Saudi and Arab students, who want to cut their dependence on US institutions. Brussels, as the capital of Europe, offers good educational facilities. It is also very cosmopolitan and many languages can be heard in its streets including Arabic.
Referring to the salient features of Saudi-Belgian education cooperation, Deboeck said that “the Saudi students will attend intensive French language classes before they are finally enrolled for medicine course at the French speaking UCL.” The UCL, Deboeck said, has more than 25,000 students including 5,000 foreign students currently on its rolls.
The university is famous for its study and research programs on cancer, cellular pathology, organ transplants, industrial toxicology and industrial pharmacy. It has two mosques on its campus for Muslim students and halal food can be purchased there with no difficulty, he said. This university, which is located in greater Brussels area with easy connections to Paris, London, Amsterdam and Cologne, provides a focus for intellectual diversity following a tradition that stretches back five centuries.
