JEDDAH — A brand-new graduate degree is opening applications at Effat University. The Ministry of Higher Education has approved the Visual and Digital Production Program (VDP), the first degree of its kind in Saudi Arabia. The program acknowledges the unique achievements made already by innovators within this area by Saudis, and hopes to contribute to the formulation of standards of excellence and best practices that will help sustain and enhance local media production and distribution. Dr. Haifa Jamalallail, President of Effat University, has expressed gratitude and appreciation to the Ministry of Higher Education for granting approval for the VDP program. "As the Kingdom's participation in the growing creative and art-oriented arenas expands, Effat University realizes that it can play a key role in helping establish a foundation not only for creative expression, but also for innovation in all forms of digital production and media-based communication and VDP is established to serve this purpose." The new program emerges in collaboration with the School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) at the University of Southern California, USA. The VDP program supports the country's mission to participate in the global economy and to contribute to an increasingly significant information economy. Offering this major by Effat University has implications not only for arts and culture, or for the sectors traditionally subsumed within the term “media” (namely television, radio and newspapers), but for all sectors, from business to urban planning, from scientific research to law, and from architecture to education. The ability to deploy images, videos, websites, apps, visualizations, and interactive experiences with rhetorical sophistication is increasingly relevant in the context of a global economy in dire need of these skills. Furthermore, the new program also focuses on the production of images, video and sound, with attention to cinematic and televisual expression, as well as to newer forms of web-based and mobile storytelling. The VDP program includes four tracks which are production, animation, screenwriting, and interactive media. Students graduating from this program will be ready for job opportunities within film production, television production, journalism, social media expression, visual communication, public relations, and education. Students will be uniquely qualified to understand trans-media expression, and agile enough to adapt to myriad job opportunities that will arise as a growing number of businesses understand the power of visual communication, information visualization, and digital storytelling. Dr. Kathleen Gullaume, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, confirmed that the program will start next semester and added: "The program will uphold international standards in all of its course offerings with regard to teaching, learning, and assessment. We are confident that the program will produce qualified, sophisticated, responsible members of the community." Effat University offers VDP in addition to eleven more programs: Architecture, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Entrepreneurship, Operation and Information Management, Human Resources Management, Finance, Marketing, English and Translation, and Psychology within three colleges, namely College of Engineering, College of Business, and College of Humanities and Social Sciences. — SG
