Saudi ministry sending students on cultural scholarships

The Ministry of Culture is sending 54 students on scholarships to international higher education institutions, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Cultural Scholarship Program, which is supervised by the ministry, is intended to prepare and develop Saudis to meet the labor market’s need for qualified and talented nationals specializing in the arts and culture sectors.

It is considered the first program of its kind in the Kingdom and covers the tuition fees and all study costs of the participating students.

The students’ specializations cover literature, languages and linguistics, fashion design, design, filmmaking, visual arts, archeology, theater, culinary arts, libraries, museums, architecture, and music.

More than half of those selected, 59 percent, are studying for a master’s degree while the rest of the cohort are undergraduates.

They will attend institutes and universities including: Royal Holloway (University of London), Georgetown University, the Parsons School of Design and the Pratt Institute in New York City, the University of Southern California, the Royal College of Art, the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts, Queen Mary University of London, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, the University of California (Berkeley), the Polytechnic University of Milano, and School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The group of 54 are the third batch of students to take part in the program. The first batch comprised 79 students while the second comprised 149.

More than half of the students in the third batch, 63 percent, are female.