class research center, open to men and women on the basis of merit alone. “An enabling environment encouraging freedom of thinking and freedom of research will motivate and encourage the best talents and minds to excel,” Al-Nasr said. The campus will occupy more than 36 million square meters on the Red Sea coast, putting Thuwal, a small fishing village with a population of about 5,000, on the map. The university will add about 12,000 people to the village, about 40 minutes from the Jiddah airport. A scholarship program launched worldwide in July is intended to recruit 250 students this year and 250 next year. The idea, said Al-Nasr, is to attract current undergraduates ready to be the first students when classes begin in 2009. The management team is receiving applications daily, he said. Once the university matures in 2019 or 2020, the administration hopes to have 2,000 students and 600 researchers and faculty.
