RIYADH — The international conference and exhibition on higher education that took place in Riyadh from April 12 to 15 attracted 387 top universities around the world to introduce best educational experiences that can help students personally and academically.
The event that featured 28 local and international speakers also offered 59 workshops.
In the booth of the American University in Cairo (AUC), Saudi Gazette sat with AUC President Francis J. Ricciardone to talk about the role of education in combating terrorism, challenges for education in the region and future plans.
"Education in all its levels undeniably plays a fundamentally essential role in combating terrorism. Terrorism is certainly going to lose. Societies and civilizations regenerate themselves through education. Education copes not only to fight terrorism but also global spread of diseases, environmental changes that can be catastrophic, human problems of all kinds, conflicts and poverty," Ricciardone said.
"Education is about positive vital forces that stand against and certainly will defeat the uncivilized forces. Think of a healthy glowing human body of all humanity including different colors and races and there is a disease process going on, and terrorism is one of them. We need education to keep that body of humanity healthy, growing and prosperous, looking forward and seizing the opportunities of the future. That is how we can win the battle. There were many terrorist incidents in Sweden, America and Egypt. However, those incidents will never defeat countries and nations. We are going to move on saddened by the losses and outraged by those indiscriminate and inhuman acts. We will stamp it out also by military means, but primarily by inoculating young people against fanaticism, hatred, bigotry, desperation and false religious beliefs," he added.
He mentioned two critical challenges that faced education in the Middle East, which are rote memorization and passive learning. "There is a specific issue that face education in the region. There is a traditional notion of education as simply giving knowledge. Read it, memorize it and write it in the exam. The world has moved on from that form of education. Memorization has a role, but developing a good way of thinking is more important. In AUC, we do not teach people answers. We teach how to think and come up with the best question," he said.
"We ask students applying to the AUC, what problems they want to solve and what excites them. In addition, we ask they what they want to make better, not what majors they want to have. Then we allow the students to ask the best questions about reaching goals and resolving terrible conflicts," Ricciardone said.
He spoke about the plans of AUC, stressing the importance of having culturally a mixed educational environment, which enhances not only the learning process but also life experiences.
"There is a potential cooperation between us and Saudi academic institutions and we are very happy of that. The Kingdom has substantial educational resources and it has the wisdom to hugely invest in education. We would like to be part of that and that is why we are here. We are looking forward to attracting more foreign students, including Saudi students. Furthermore, we currently have a focus in improving blended learning and online courses. That can help spread knowledge everywhere in the world. We look to the future with great optimism and hope to make the world better through education and building cultural bridge between the east and west," he said.
