His Excellency the Minister of Higher Education, Dr Khalid Al-Anqari
September 23, Inaugural Ceremony, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz,
Your Majesties and Excellencies, the kings and heads of state
of sister countries,
Your Highnesses, Reverences and Excellencies,
Honorable Guests,
I offer you the greeting to bring happiness to all peoples of
Earth, the greeting of Islam and peace, the greeting of faith and science, the
greeting of fraternity, amity, peacefulness and tranquility: peace be upon you
and Allah’s mercy and blessings.
It is a great honor to be speaking to the distinguished elite
of the heads of state and kings of the countries of our expansive world. You
have come here despite your heavy responsibilities to recognize the role of
science and scientists and to support science institutions and their outputs.
Your presence here is acknowledgement of the role of science in bringing
happiness and prosperity to mankind.
Honorable Guests,
The history of Saudi Arabia is full of great events worthy of
praise and pride. At the forefront of these is one that took place on this day
seventy-seven years ago, when the greatest Arab unity was successfully achieved.
Saudi Arabia still shows burns brightly from the spark of that great moment
unity. Today, our virtues more strongly established, deeply rooted and thriving
than ever before. In commemoration of that event, we launch one of its fruits,
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, the forerunner of science
and knowledge and the bearer of the torch of progress and advancement. That
torch will illuminate a new, promising path for present and future generations.
As we celebrate this national and global achievement, allow me
to take you on a brief tour of the history of higher education in Saudi Arabia
to see the progress it made since the first college and the first university was
established in the 1930’s.
These were nascent steps at that time, but through them we
felt our way to the future.
The ambition at that time was as big as the dream of our great
leaders, who held the beacon of education based on the vision of the Founder of
Saudi Arabia, the late King Abdulaziz. It was he who ordered the establishment
of the first Education Directorate in 1344 H. (1929 AD). This was the first seed
from which the education enterprise in Saudi Arabia germinated and grew in
confident progressive strides.
The voyage of this educational system took shape gradually –
in phases – based on the needs of a people who have passion for development and
advancement. Today, we have 24 public universities and eight private
universities, with their colleges and institutes dispersed north and south, east
and west throughout the Kingdom, in realization of the guidance of the Custodian
of the Two Holy Mosques.
In recent years, Higher Education in the Kingdom began
developing plans to ensure availability of higher education in all parts of the
Kingdom, rather than being concentrated in the major cities. We will see in the
near future the results of this move, which promises a future comprehensive
development of the quality of education and life in every region of our beloved
country.
This leads us to emphasize the great significance of the King
Abdullah Out-of-Kingdom Scholarship Program, which encourages students to pursue
specialty studies in the most sophisticated disciplines at the world’s best
universities. The diversity of disciplines meets the needs of government
ministries, national institutions and the private sectors; and it enables our
labor market to fulfill the needs of regions, governorates, universities and
industrial operations here in the Kingdom.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,
Generation after generation, the progression of higher
education in our country has made great leaps forward starting from the reign of
the Founder of the Kingdom until these days of your blessed ruling. Throughout
this period, higher education has achieved major milestones both at its
horizontal expansion and deepening levels of quality, enabling Saudis and Saudi
Arabia to keep current with the requirements and developments of our modern age.
Your vision to create King Abdullah University of Science and
Technology is part of an optimal national initiative to keep pace with these
global changes in modern education. By joining the higher education community in
the Kingdom, this University has become the Saudi education community’s crown,
ushering in a new era of science and knowledge and remaining connected with its
preceding stages of our national educational system. Through KAUST, we will
benefit from global partnerships and from channeling scientific achievements
into the service of science and scientists.
This state-of-the-art University will complete the circle of
the new and pioneering vision for the future of education and comprehensive
economic development in Saudi Arabia. It will draw on the existing roles,
strengths and research of our universities. And it will enable the Kingdom to
exploit all of its present natural resources with the aim of ensuring the
prosperity and welfare of the generations of our beloved kingdom.
I would like in this regard to note the importance and
benefits of exchanging knowledge and experiences among scholars from the various
universities of the Kingdom, particularly King Abdullah University of Science
and Technology, which will open new windows to the local educational landscape
and the range of educational developments around the world.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,
Allow me on this historic occasion to pay tribute to this
achievement, which no words of praise are adequate for its accolade. I would
like on behalf of all employees in the field of Higher Education to congratulate
Your Majesty for making this great scientific achievement a reality within
record time. As our successive generations felt the importance of the first
school, the first college and the first university, we feel today the great
significance of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, which will
benefit the Kingdom and its people. This aspiration, which we have always had
and long cherished, has now been realized and embraced by our Higher Education
community.
I would like also on this remarkable occasion to express our
deep thanks and gratitude to all who contributed their efforts to the creation
of this magnificent scientific beacon, wishing all of them continuous success.
We look forward to meeting them in the future at other national institutes of
higher learning , which will contribute to the development and progress of our
beloved country.
Peace be upon you, and Allah’s Mercy and Blessings.