Algeria seeks Saudi education expertise

Algeria wants advice from the Kingdom on how to develop its higher education sector, particularly science and technology institutions and its scholarship program.
This is one of the objectives of a high-level delegation led by Algerian Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) Rachid Harraoubia that visited the Kingdom recently. He arrived here last week with a large contingent from the ministry to participate in the International Higher Education Conference that ended here recently.
Harraoubia told Arab News he visited a number of higher education institutions including King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University and King Saud University.
“We want to keep a close eye on the Saudi experiment in the development of higher education with regard to performance measurements and scholarship experience, which are the characteristic features of its educational policy,” he said.
The minister was speaking at a reception on Thursday attended by Minister of Higher Education Khalid Al-Anqari, who had invited his Algerian counterpart. “This reflects the nature of the fraternal relations between the two countries,” Harraoubia said.
According to the Algerian ambassador in Riyadh, Abdelouahab Derbal, this was Harraoubia’s first visit to promote relations between the two countries. Derbal said Algeria is seeking partnership between universities and research centers with an exchange of experts and researchers, particularly in renewable energy and agriculture.
Algeria also wants to reach an agreement for the children of the two countries’ diplomats to register at local universities. The countries have agreed on a twinning project between King Saud University and leading universities in Algeria, and between Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University and the University of Emir Abdelkader in Constantine.