By Faten Omar
KUWAIT: Marking a significant milestone in Kuwait's higher education sector, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Research Dr Hamad Al-Adwani on Thursday announced the laying of the foundation stone for Abdullah Al-Salem University (AASU).
Addressing a press conference, Dr Al-Adwani stated that the opening of the new public university of Abdullah Al-Salem (AASU) is a historic event. Officially announcing the laying of the foundation stone of AASU, he also said that the first batch of students will be admitted in the beginning of the academic year 2023-2024 next September.
He pointed out that the opening of Abdullah Al-Salem University is a significant achievement as it is one of the pillars of the government's work program to become a strategic partner in the higher education sector in Kuwait along with other educational institutions in order to prepare qualified and skilled citizens to contribute to the labor market.
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Adwani affirmed political leaders' keenness in opening new educational horizons to contribute effectively to the implementation of the country's development plan in all its aspects, explaining that AASU to be a fourth generation university as its academic programs integrate with scientific research centers in the field of creativity as well as digitization and artificial intelligence fields, especially in the field of modern medicine and in the field of hydrocarbon and renewable energy research.
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Prof Moudi A Al-Humoud, chairperson of the Founding Administrative Board of Abdullah Al-Salem University, said, "AASU comes as a complementary link to the educational system in Kuwait," noting that the board is studying the needs of the labor market and the requirements of various economic sectors in country to provide qualified manpower in accordance with Kuwait's Vision 2035.
The university aims to transfer the Kuwaiti economy from a single-resource to a diversified and knowledge-based economy that keeps pace with the renewed and rapidly developing world of digitization, she said. She said, "The establishment of a university with these specifications is not an easy task and cannot be completed in a short span of time as the implementation will take several levels."
"There will be nine research centers. The centers will be for cybersecurity, digital transformation, data science, artificial intelligence research, resources, energy and sustainability, advanced science and engineering, marine and coastal research, finance, and risk management, research in entrepreneurship and innovation, health and wellbeing and inventive learning center," she added.
Four faculties were named and three of them will be in the first stage. They are: the faculty of management and entrepreneurship, computing systems, and engineering and energy. The last faculty it will be for Medicine and Health Sciences. She revealed that the university to be located in Shuwaikh initially and then it will branch into other areas of Kuwait later.