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Published online 15 September 2009 | 461, 326 (2009) | doi:10.1038/461326a
News: Q&A
Choon Fong Shih
The first president of Saudia Arabia's King Abdullah University of Science and Technology talks.
On 23 September, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia will open the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), an endeavour to build an internationally competitive university from scratch. Officials say they have recruited some 70 professors, mainly in chemistry, physics, mathematics and engineering; fewer than 10% of them, however, are women.
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"...fewer than 10% of them, however, are women."
"We have many women on campus."
I see he has retained the first rule of Singapore admin: when confronted with a problem, deny there's a problem.
Great recipe for academic growth.
Saudi Arabia, the superrich oil nation, has smartly embarked on the right yet encouraging path of spending its excessive black-gold wealth on education. KAUST’s enormous US$10 billion dollar asset would enable the university to equip itself with the state-of-the-art technology and global top-notch academics.
The King wants the university to be an Islamic House of Wisdom cum advanced centre of scientific inquiry. His vision has been aptly reflected by Prof Choon from Singapore, who adds that KAUST will endeavor to become one of the world’s leading universities within a generation.
Let us hope that more cash rich nations could follow suit.
(TanBoonTee)
KAUST can progress much faster if it collaborates with top universities in the Middle East. For example, Ben Gurion and other Israeli universities that also focuses on renewable energy, turning sea water into clean, potable water, and plant biology in arid conditions.
For a university specialising in the sciences and engineering, to have "only 10%" of professors female is not a poor percentage. Traditionally women were barely seen in such fields, and they remain very much a minority at the higher levels. The KAUST is very progressive for an institution in a conservative and Moslem country to have so many woman professors. They should be congratulated for this, not condemned.
I didn't "condemn" their failure to recruit more than 10% female faculty. That's hardly surprising. Your comment, although debatable considering KAUST's obvious ambition to be compared to other global universities rather than to the rest of Saudi Arabia, would have been at least an honest attempt to answer the question rather than a vapid evasion.