Anqari, Minister of Higher Education, on Saturday will sign several contracts for the execution of strategic projects at King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh. Dr. Ali Saeed Al-Ghamdi, Deputy director for Knowledge Exchange and Technology Transfer, said the SR10.3 billion projects include a new campus for female students, expansion of the medical city and completion of men's colleges. Authorities at the KSU have already started leveling the land on which the men's campus will be constructed, he said. Saudi Arabia has recently reclaimed the destiny of its higher education amid growing global economic, industrial, and social competition by setting up more universities across the nation, the most recent of which is King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The construction project of the three campuses of KSU in Riyadh, Jeddah, Ahsa and a hospital in Madina will be completed in three years. The KSU main campus in Riyadh alone stretches over an area of 5,000,000 square meters. Dr. Abdullah Al-Othman, president of King Saud University, said the women's campus includes colleges in the fields of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, applied medical sciences, nursing, nutrition and agriculture, computer sciences and information and humanities comprising education, administrative science and European languages and translation. He said the expansion of the Medical City is meant to improve the services particularly in admission, preventive medical services, one-day medical care service, and therapeutic areas. Dr. Al-Othman said medical projects are among the largest in the university. He said the current admission capacity of the city will be increased to 550 beds. Dr. Ahamd Al-Arjani, vice president of KSU, said the women's campus has been designed to maintain female students' privacy allowing them to engage in all extracurricular activities within the campus. He said the campus also has residential units for bachelor staff members. – Okaz __
