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By Sandra Davie, Senior Writer
ALONG the shores of the Red Sea, 80km from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, hundreds of guests gathered yesterday to celebrate the birth of a university.
The Saudi government spared no expense to fly in university presidents, Nobel laureates and government leaders, among others, to witness the inauguration of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust), which the rulers hope will propel the kingdom into the heady global ranks of technological research.
Visitors arriving at the university gates were subjected to long security checks by gun-toting soldiers in bullet-proof vests before being waved in.
Saudi monarch King Abdullah, 85, whose name the university bears, endowed the university with US$10 billion (S$14 billion), instantly creating one of the richest universities in the world.
Kaust's president is Professor Shih Choon Fong, who took on the post after spending 11 years at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Showing off the oceanfront views of the campus he has dubbed 'Stanford by the sea', he told The Straits Times: 'Two years ago, when I was first recruited, there was nothing but sand and sea. Today, there is one of the best infrastructures for research.'
Classes, taught in English, started on Sept 5 with 71 professors and 374 students from more than 60 countries.
Students have plunged headlong into joint research programmes with institutions ranging from NUS to Britain's Cambridge University, and to Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology in the United States.
Research areas include nanotechnology, solar engineering, membrane research and bioengineering.
Shiny new buildings impressed the visitors who toured the sprawling 36sqkm campus - 25 times the size of the Kent Ridge campus of NUS.
The university's researchers, such as American Steve Cutchin, however, were more excited about research facilities like Shaheen, the 14th largest supercomputer in the world, and the virtual reality system called Cornea, which can transport you in an instant to the tunnel of an archaeological dig in Jordan.
The university also has one of the most generous research stipends for students and academic salaries. Assistant professors are paid annual salaries and bonuses averaging US$150,000 - three times more than their counterparts in Singapore.
Students and professors are impressed that the King has given the institution his full political endorsement, needed to stave off internal challenges from conservatives. It will also grant them an unfettered academic environment on campus.
The foreigners, both faculty and students, have been assured that there will be none of the restrictions which apply to other public universities here.
Among other things, the Islamic authorities vet the curriculum in public institutions. Male and female students enter classrooms through separate doors and are separated by partitions as they follow lectures.
Word has it that, to ensure that there is academic freedom in Kaust, King Abdullah has cut the country's education authorities out of the loop. The ministry overseeing all other public universities is said to be controlled by fundamentalists.
Instead, the Kaust project was overseen by state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco, which has experience in creating a parallel world. The gated communities it builds for Westerners resemble American suburbs, and women are free to wear Western gear and drive.
The King apparently pushed for the university because he recognises that despite being the largest producer of oil, the country needs to survive globalisation and create jobs for its growing citizenry.
When talking about his vision for a science and technology university three years ago, he said: 'There is no real power without achieving progress in science and technology. Anyone failing to achieve excellence in these subjects will be marginalised.'
Said Professor Shih: 'The King is concerned that the Saudi economy is flying on one engine. You need to create another engine - one that is based on science and technology, and that is where Kaust comes in.'
Arab News editor-in-chief Khaled Almaeena noted that the Saudi population has tripled to 25 million from 7.3 million in 1975 and 60 per cent of all Saudis are under the age of 25.
'There is a recognition that as the population grows, the kingdom's riches must be spread among more people,' he said.
He added that despite decades of oil wealth, the Saudi education system was ranked as one of the worst worldwide. Tens of thousands of university graduates are unemployed and the economy is not diverse enough to compete in the new knowledge-based economy.
Economic urgency notwithstanding, the creation of the university has intensified the ideological battle between Saudi reformers led by the King and the Wahabi sect of puritanical Islam that has resisted outside influence for centuries.
A young Arab female student in her long flowing black abaya but minus her headscarf politely declined to pose for pictures or be named by the media.
Inside the campus, she mixed freely with her male classmates and professors. However, she admitted that outside of the campus grounds, she is subject to constraints placed on all women by the government's strict interpretation of Islam.
Women are not allowed to mix in public with men who are not related to them and are prohibited from driving cars.
She said: 'It is good to have the opportunity to learn and conduct research alongside some of the best academics from around the world, both male and female.'
While Saudi women account for 57 per cent of higher education graduates, they make up only 15 per cent of the workforce.
Outside of the campus grounds though, the older, more conservative people said that although they supported the opening up of opportunities for Saudis, both men and women, things were moving a little too rapidly.
'The rules are there for a reason. Young men and women should not be together. We are inviting trouble,' said the mother of two university-going children.
Her views are echoed by people from the conservative religious establishment, such as Sheik Abdul-Aziz Alturafi, who wrote on his website www.mubasheer.com that gender-mixing, an idea borrowed from Westerners, is forbidden in Islam. He added that if allowed in the kingdom, it would generate problems for society.
Others felt that the university should be a Saudi university for Saudi people, not a foreign university implanted in the kingdom.
The King's supporters, such as Mr Khaled Almaeena, disagree.
'We are part of the global world now. Whether we like it or not, regardless of our political and religious systems, we have to adapt to keep up with the rest of the world. We have no time to waste. We need an open, free flow of education,' he said.
Agreeing, Prof Shih said that given another five years, Kaust would prove that an 'open enabling environment in the campuses' will not necessarily erode Saudi culture and tradition, but instead give rise to great innovations and discovery, and bring back the golden age of Islam.
'My hope is that in a few years the other universities in Saudi Arabia will look at us and say, if Kaust can work, why can't we do similar things? Kaust will become a catalyst for change,' he said.
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
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