‘Beautiful minds’ neglected as KAUST courts global elite

‘Beautiful minds’ neglected as KAUST courts global elite

‏26 أبريل، 2014‏

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/beautiful-minds-neglected-as-kaust-courts-global-elite/2012781.article

24 APRIL 2014 | BY DAVID MATTHEWS

Saudi princess sounds alarm over institution’sshare of local students

A Saudi princess hasattacked the flagship university set up by her own uncle, the king of SaudiArabia, as a “disaster” because it does not educate enough local students.

Basmah bint Saud binAbdulaziz Al Saud told Times Higher Education that hercountry needs to embrace mass higher education rather than bringing in Westernscholars to educate an “elite” – a model she claims is used by the KingAbdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST), which started teachingin 2009 backed by a $10 billion (£6 billion) endowment from the monarchhimself.

Princess Basmah lives inLondon and has called before for legal gender equality in the kingdom, wherewomen are banned from driving and must be accompanied in public by a malechaperone.

Educated in the UK,Switzerland and Beirut, she is the daughter of King Saud (and reportedly his115th and last child), the elder brother of the current king, who ruled from1953 to 1964.

At a conference on Gulfeducation held in London she told THE that KAUST was for the “elitesof the elites of the elites of the elites – of not even Saudi Arabia”.

The graduate institutionhas set up a generous scholarship programme to attract foreign students and hasmanaged to draw in international faculty, reportedly using top salaries and insome cases tailor-made labs.

It was set up by the kingwith the aim of rekindling science and learning in the Arab world, and is freeof many of the discriminatory laws against women in effect in the rest of thecountry.

But Princess Basmah askedwhy the university was not educating more Saudis. “It’s a disaster…you seeJapanese and Chinese coming to learn in Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Arabian[students] have no…right to go there”, she said – adding that those Saudistudents who did attend were still drawn from a tiny elite.

Brian Moran, dean ofgraduate affairs at KAUST, countered that at the university’s most recentcommencement ceremony in December last year, 37 per cent of the students wereSaudis.

Speaking during a debateat the Gulf Education Conference 2014, held last month, Princess Basmah alsoargued that the region was going “backwards” by attempting to attract morescholars from abroad.

Instead, the Gulf shoulduse “the people that we have” and that there were “beautiful minds in ourcountries that we [do] not recognise”.

She claimed that the Westhad a commitment to an equal education for all citizens that was lacking in theGulf. “Educate the masses, this is where everybody should start,” she said.

But asked by THEif her rhetoric about equality meant she believed men and women should beeducated on campus together in Saudi Arabia, Princess Basmah said that thissegregation was “not an issue at all”.

She said she was callingfor “equality to learn for both sexes in the same way, the same manner, thesame subjects, the same opportunities, that’s what I was talking about – I wasnot talking about having both sexes together”. She added that universities forwomen in Saudi Arabia were “much better” than those set aside for men.