RIYADH — The winners in new phase of the Scholarship Program of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques will be announced on Thursday, the Education Ministry has said. The ministry said the third stage of the program, under which the qualified Saudi male and female students will study abroad at the expense of the government, will be launched under the theme "Your scholarship is your job". It said the ministries and departments participating in the program have completed all arrangements to send the students abroad ensuring them with jobs on their return home. Education Minister Azzam Al-Dakhil, on his part, said this phase of the program has given top priority to "quality and excellence" and winners in each discipline have been chosen carefully and in complete transparency. He said the candidates were subjected to rigorous vocational and academic tests, in addition to personal interviews and the university rating. The minister said the third stage of the program has focused on specializations most required by the ministries and the government departments. "We will therefore not dump the labor markets with specialties it does not need," he added. He said the program is giving special attention to all specializations, particularly the medicine and engineering which the country needs most. Al-Dakhil said the program has been expanded to cover high and medium diplomas in addition to the master's degrees and PhDs. "We have increased the scholarships to a number of countries, including Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Holland, Korea and Japan," he said. Al-Dakhil also said the ministry will be sending students to new countries mainly Austria, Russia, Switzerland and Finland.
