Two Chinese prestigious universities have requested the office of the Saudi cultural attaché here approval for establishing two chairs to be named the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah ibn Abdul-Aziz for studies of civilizations and religions. This was announced by Saudi cultural attaché in China Dr Salih al-Saqri in a statement to SPA after the end of the Saudi cultural days organized in China. He noted that the universities of UIBE and Sun Yat-Sen have requested the office of the cultural attaché to establish the chairs to be named after the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah in recognition of his stands in the service of the humanity through his initiative pertaining to conducting dialogue among followers of religions and civilizations as well as his role in developing education in the Kingdom. He noted that UIBE university, the university of international Business and Economics, established in 1951, includes more than 30,000 students, while the university of Sun-Yat-Sen, established in 1924, contains more than 80,000 students. A number of Saudi students are studying at these universities. The cultural attaché pointed out that the Chinese universities have signed with the Saudi universities more than 35 contracts for exchange of expertise , while more than 30 Chinese universities have asked for enrolment of more Saudi students. He said the visit of higher education minister Dr Khalid al-Anqari to China last year has positively contributed to further cementing cultural and educational relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and China. Dr al-Saqri noted that the number of Saudi students who are on scholarship in China has amounted to 600, and they are studying at 40 universities. The number of is expected to jump to 3000 within the next two year, he said. Dr al-Saqri said seven of the Chinese universities have established special institutes for teaching Arabic language. It is worth mentioning that there are more than 3000 universities in China.
