Spring Break
Free schooling offered for Saudi Arabian students
Ioana Puscas Contributing Writer
Issue date: 8/13/09 Section: NEWS
The words "college" and "free" aren't often found in the same sentence, but for many Saudi Arabian students, these two words go hand-in-hand.
About four years ago, President George W. Bush and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia developed a scholarship to send over 3,000 Saudi Arabian students to college in the United States, said Aleka Myre, the director of the Sponsored and Special Programs Center at UNT.
Students are sent to other countries as well, such as Ukraine, Italy, Jordan, China and others. The program was put into place because of the lack of universities in Saudi Arabia, said Wael Alandijani, a UNT graduate student who received the scholarship.
Roughly translated, the scholarship is called The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques scholarship, he said.
"I believe what [Saudi Arabia] is trying to do right now is to develop their higher education system," Myre said.
The scholarship is run by the Ministry of Higher Education, an organization committed to supervising the scholarships of Saudi Arabian students studying abroad, according to the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission's Web site.
On top of free tuition, the government also pays for room and board, a year and a half of English training and insurance, Myre said. In addition, the students receive a monthly salary. If the student brings his or her family, then he or she receives a higher monthly salary.
"It's gonna change my life big time," Alandijani said. "This is a very good opportunity for me and all the students that applied for this program."
Most of the students on the scholarship now are graduates that mainly focus on business or engineering, Myre said.
After completing their education, most of the students go back to Saudi Arabia where their families await them to secure jobs.
"The government wants the students to come back in order to improve the quality of workers in Saudi Arabia," Alandijani said.
About four years ago, President George W. Bush and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia developed a scholarship to send over 3,000 Saudi Arabian students to college in the United States, said Aleka Myre, the director of the Sponsored and Special Programs Center at UNT.
Students are sent to other countries as well, such as Ukraine, Italy, Jordan, China and others. The program was put into place because of the lack of universities in Saudi Arabia, said Wael Alandijani, a UNT graduate student who received the scholarship.
Roughly translated, the scholarship is called The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques scholarship, he said.
"I believe what [Saudi Arabia] is trying to do right now is to develop their higher education system," Myre said.
The scholarship is run by the Ministry of Higher Education, an organization committed to supervising the scholarships of Saudi Arabian students studying abroad, according to the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission's Web site.
On top of free tuition, the government also pays for room and board, a year and a half of English training and insurance, Myre said. In addition, the students receive a monthly salary. If the student brings his or her family, then he or she receives a higher monthly salary.
"It's gonna change my life big time," Alandijani said. "This is a very good opportunity for me and all the students that applied for this program."
Most of the students on the scholarship now are graduates that mainly focus on business or engineering, Myre said.
After completing their education, most of the students go back to Saudi Arabia where their families await them to secure jobs.
"The government wants the students to come back in order to improve the quality of workers in Saudi Arabia," Alandijani said.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
abdulmajeed
posted 8/14/09 @ 2:25 PM CST
it is excellent step form the goverement of saudi arabia to send young saudi to study out side in order to bring new ideas to improve our country
JPH200
Jack Haesly
posted 8/14/09 @ 3:34 PM CST
One problem I see with this program is that university seats that should be going to American citizen students first may be going to Saudi students instead. (Continued…)
Post a Comment