Imam Muhammad Bin Saud University in Riyadh has launched the country's first satellite television channel entirely dedicated to education and educational issues, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported Sunday. Abdul Rahman Al-Sind, Dean of Distance Education at the university, was reported as saying that the new “Al-Imam” satellite channel will be broadcasted by Arab Sat within its group of other educational channels. “Al-Imam channel has been tried out successfully through broadcasts on some Internet programs and looks to create quality leading programs to achieve the large aims of higher education in Saudi Arabia,” he said at a workshop to discuss visions for the new channel. The gathering, which was attended by a large number of media academics and executives from satellite channels, discussed plans for the channel and sought to learn from the variety of experience on offer from participants in the area of global broadcasting. Al-Imam primarily targets an audience of students and staff at Imam Muhammad Bin Saud University as well as researchers and thinkers in wider society, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat said, with scheduling including programs such as “University Morning” and “Student Forum” as well as “With Honors”, a weekly program charting the university's accomplishments in academic and scientific research. The Imam University TV channel is available online via the university portal, said Professor Dr. Suliman Aba Al-Khail, the rector of Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University, when the channel was launched. “The channel targets the distance learning undergraduates, and transmits lectures of distance learning programs initially,” Aba Al-Khail said. “The university has preceded other universities with an online TV service, believing in the significance of such services in imparting sessions and courses to all students enrolled in the distance learning and developed affiliate studies.”
