The launch of the First Forum for Science and Arts colleges sponsored by Al Dawood.
His Excellency, the President of King Khalid University (KKU), Prof. Dr. Abdul Rahman bin Hamad Al Dawood, has opened the ceremony of the activities of the First Scientific Forum of Science and Arts Colleges for boys and girls, which is organized by the Vice President of girls' colleges, represented by Science and Arts College in Khamis Mushayt. The activities which lasted for two days, took place in the central terraced at University for men, and at the theater of Sciences Faculty for Girls in Abha - King Abdullah road - for women.
President Dr. Al-Dawood expressed his gratitude to His Excellency, the Vice President of the girls' colleges for adopting the idea of Dr. Sraa abo Molha, who proposed the event, which consolidates the academic work at the University.
His Excellency the President added that, that Forum was the first of its kind in the universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, clarifying further that everyone - the management, the faculties and the implementing departments - should feel proud of such a forum because it would be of great benefit - God willing - to the university's and the professors' interests, and it would be reflected on our students’ levels.
The President of the Scientific Committee of the Forum, who is the Deputy Dean of High Studies, Dr. Areej Mustafa, used the occasion to reveal that the establishment of that Forum, which brought together a group of scholars, researchers and faculty members in the specialty of English and Computer Science, was coming from the belief of the University administration in the importance of those scientific forums, and their roles in development and improvement of the educational process, and from the administration's keenness to advance the scientific levels of research.
Dr. Areej stressed further that, that forum was a response to the needs of researchers and faculty members to update their knowledge, and to develop their performance by exchanging experiences among themselves, in addition to finding solutions to their problems, and those of the students. Dr. Areej stated that it was a suitable event for each of them to present and discuss what the academics reach in the fields of updating curricula and teaching methods, and the latest teaching strategies, so that they could put forward problems and find their appropriate solutions. Dr. Areej continued, saying that the forum was suitable for presenting the successful experiences of the researchers and the faculty members, so as to take advantage of those experiences, and studies, and to apply the appropriate ones in real, in our classrooms.
Dr. Areej added: “Since the announcement of the Forum, we have seen requests for participation and attendance. The scientific committee has received nearly 70 researches and working papers, submitted by more than 65 researchers affiliated to 17 entities from the University for boys’ and for girls’ colleges, in addition to the participation of a number of female students under the supervision of their teachers”. She further indicated that the Forum presented 24 researchers from the participants' researches through four scientific sessions, in addition to six lectures, and nearly 40 researches in the form of scientific posters.
The participants’ speech was delivered by the Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Translation, Dr. Abdullah Al Malhi, in which he said that the organization of such meetings was the core of their academic university work, and like other universities, which includes male and female researchers who are able to organize such meetings, and to make it rich by research and recommendations. Dr. Al Malhi stressed that the cooperation between the two sides - men and women - was no longer an option, but it had become a necessity in the light of, the same curriculum, and the conditions and obstacles, and in line with the efforts of King Khalid University for its general development and its academic accreditation. Dr. Al Malhi concluded by noting the honor and the commitment of the President of the university, and of all the vice presidents, were a real support to continue research, publishing and holding seminars and meetings.
It is worth mentioning that the forum included several axes concerned with recent trends in the development of the English language curriculum. The axes include computer science and information systems, modern strategies in methods of teaching English, computer science and information systems; the challenges they face, and the solutions proposed to overcome such challenges, and successful experiences for faculty members.
