WIT News

Over 300 Saudi students set for WIT over four years Posted: Sun, March 28, 2010

The first 80 of over 300 students from Saudi Arabia are due to arrive in the southeast in September to begin four years of study at Waterford Institute of Technology.

The students will begin their time in Ireland with a 12-month programme of intensive English language tuition. After that, they will pursue three-year degree programmes across a range of disciplines.

It is planned that a similar number of additional students will arrive at the start of each subsequent academic year so that there will quickly be some 320 Saudi students in Waterford.

The students’ time in Ireland is governed by an agreement reached between Waterford Institute of Technology, counterpart Institutes in Athlone and Galway and the Technical Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

TVTC is a Saudi government institution that develops the kingdom’s workforce and the students will be funded under the King Abdullah scholarship programme. Spouses of the scholarship students will also attend English language classes in their first years to support assimilation.

Prof Kieran R Byrne, President, Waterford Institute of Technology, said: “We welcome the latest progression in our growing network of international relationships which are a strategic priority. We currently have over 600 international students from over 60 countries and among these are 22 students from Saudi Arabia whose compatriots will join them in the autumn as we welcome some 80 degree students from the Technical Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) to Waterford.

“The links forged at higher education bind for a lifetime and the Saudi students who will spend four years or more with us will long retain an affinity to the southeast and to Ireland more widely. While here, they will also contribute greatly to our increasingly diverse learning community. The range of perspectives and backgrounds represented on campus boosts outcomes for all of our students as they learn from and support each other.”

Further information is available at www.wit.ie and www.tvtc.gov.sa/English/