WASHINGTON: The Saudi Cultural Attaché in Washington has said that Saturday saw the final Saudi studying in the US at his own expense enrolled in the King Abdullah Scholarships Abroad Program. The process of enrolling all Saudi students abroad in the program began last month following orders from King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and Cultural Attaché Muhammad Al-Issa said that in the US the process entailed 6,200 students. “Officials at the office have been on standby since the orders were announced to put them into effect immediately and they have been working 16 hours a day to carry them through,” Al-Issa said. “Working with the Ministry of Higher Education we opened a hotline to handle each student in turn.” He said that a group of officials was sent to the US from the ministry to speed up procedures and enroll the non-scholarship program students as quickly as possible. “All students, male and female, are included in the move without exception, irrespective of region or group,” he added. “This program is from the country to its people with no difference between them.” Al-Issa said that the number of scholarship students and persons accompanying them would with the new decision go up from 42,000 to 53,000. The Cultural Attaché's office in the US handles and supervises the largest number of Saudis studying abroad, and Al-Issa said that it had difficulties in responding to the “10,000 telephone enquiries we receive every day”. “With the new decision to include the 6,200 on the scholarship program, we expect the number of enquiries to fall,” he said.
