Attracting Talent Back to the Kingdom

DR. NAJAH ASHRY Vice President of Strategic National Advancement

KAUST OFFERS AN UNPRECEDENTED CHANCE FOR SAUDIS TO GAIN A WORLDCLASS RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE WHILE CONTRIBUTING TO THE UNFOLDING NATIONAL SUCCESS STORY TAKING PLACE IN THEIR OWN BACKYARD.

KAUST goes global in its strategy to attract talented Saudi students

As a university that welcomes students from around the world to pursue advanced degrees and research in cutting-edge fields, KAUST’s student body is a diverse mix of Saudi and international students who all contribute to a shared mission. Its recruitment and retention efforts have been paying impressive dividends in terms of impact and growth over the last decade.

As KAUST continues to make gains in developing in-Kingdom talent, it is also expanding recruitment to target Saudis studying abroad. A cornerstone of its strategy is to promote “brain gain” and help build a new generation that can contribute to in-country knowledge, innovation and growth. Encouraging talented Saudis studying overseas to realize their potential at home is key to achieving these goals. To this end, KAUST has taken the lead in showcasing the opportunities and R&D ecosystems on offer.

To kick off a new era of recruitment and awareness, KAUST partnered with the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM) in March 2021 to hold the inaugural KAUST-SACM Open House for Saudis Abroad. The virtual event welcomed more than 400 students from 10 countries including the UK, Australia and the US. Attendees learned about KAUST’s ground-breaking academic and research offerings, met university leadership and faculty, and heard from students and alumni who had pursued similar paths spanning continents before landing back in Saudi Arabia.

Highlights of the event included sessions on innovation, where students learned how an idea can lead to global collaboration on better products and technology; plant science, where students learned how KAUST scientists are thinking creatively to enable plants to grow in the desert, with significant implications for future food security; and energy, where students learned how KAUST is using computer science to solve large-scale energy and environmental challenges.

The common theme throughout these sessions was one that is close to KAUST’s core mission and interdisciplinary approach: that thinking outside the box, and forming unlikely connections and collaborating across fields, can lead to extraordinary breakthroughs. In this vein, students saw how their diverse and wide-ranging backgrounds and interests could enable them to thrive at KAUST.

The open house is just the first step in a suite of activities and offerings for Saudi students joining KAUST from outside the Kingdom. These students receive ongoing networking opportunities and tailored insight from faculty on how to translate their diverse experiences into unexpected and powerful paths to success that benefit their own careers as well as Saudi Arabia’s economic development.

SACM

“It is of great pride for the Cultural Mission that our distinguished students in science and innovation are admitted annually to KAUST’s graduate programs.”

Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulla Aljebrin, SACM Acting Cultural Attaché to the US