Saudi Arabia launches first co-education university

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Officials backing King Abdullah fear young people will be drawn to militancy without reforms

THUWAL: Saudi Arabia opened its first co-education university on Wednesday, a high-tech campus with massive funds which reformers hope will spearhead change in the kingdom.

Western diplomats hope the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), which has attracted more than 70 professors and 800 students from abroad, would usher reform after recent setbacks such as shelving municipal elections planned for this year and cancelling cultural events opposed by clerics. King Abdullah was due to inaugurate the university 80 kilometres north of Jeddah in the presence of regional leaders, Western officials and Nobel laureates late on Wednesday.

The 85-year-old monarch has promoted reforms in the world’s top oil exporter since taking office in 2005 to create a modern state, stave off Western criticisms and lower dependence on oil but faces resistance from conservative clerics and princes.

Future concerns: Officials who back Abdullah fear that without reforms, young people would be drawn to militancy in the future. Supporters are presenting KAUST as a tangible gain for the king’s plans, which have included more long-term projects such as an overhaul of courts, the education system and building “economic cities” to create jobs for the young population.

“There is truly no other university in the world so well-equipped. Anywhere. The issue is, of course, what is to be done with the equipment and that remains to be seen,” former US diplomat John Burgess wrote in his Saudi blog “Crossroads Arabia”. reuters

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